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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Jun 1, 2023 12:49:42 GMT
June the First The smell of bacon, biscuits with sausage gravy, fried eggs, and coffee wafted through the House-On-The-Spire, strong and tantalizing enough that the usual smells of a tropical beach and ocean front were driven out. The food now filled the bellies of Celeste and Nat and even Dordy, who was on the couch in the living room, sprawled out on his side with his short little legs poking out, snoozing off a food coma. It had been a good, big breakfast, with Nat waking early to cook for Celeste to see her off with a hearty meal before her travels.
Now Nat sat in her office, the sun streaming through the east-facing sliding glass door, illuminating the open diary that sat on her desk. Celeste was upstairs packing. Nat could hear the footsteps to and fro, with several instances of Celeste darting down the spiral staircase two floors to the workshop, remembering some tool or device she wanted to pack and then darting back upstairs with it. Nat marveled at her energy. Even with Celeste being former military, she must still be in some excellent shape; that was a lot of spiral stairs to wind up and down!
Nat had helped her pack as much as she could, and now Celeste was in full engineering mode, now packing for scenarios she saw popping up in her head, scenarios advanced enough that Nat was of no further help, being too novice at engineering to know what to bring Celeste for what potential task or problem that might arise.
Now Nat sat at her desk, mechanical pen in hand, having poked the button to free it from her mechanical inkwell – another testament to Celeste’s engineering prowess and intellect. Smiling softly out the window and across Turtle Bay to Turtle Beach (remembering so very many memories with Celeste there), she eventually turned her eyes and her pen to the next blank page of her diary, and began to write.
Dear diary,
Goodness gracious, what a troublesome week it’s been! It’s had its high points for sure, but gosh, some people are just not happy unless they can control everything in sight, even if they have to absolutely stomp on other people to obtain control!
On top of that, that recurring dream is coming back. I used to have this dream with people I used to know in it, but now, it’s coming back with people I know these days! I can’t help but feel that something big is going to happen with it soon… If I can remember the whole thing after having it, maybe just write it down right after waking up from it, I can figure out what it means, and act upon it!
The other trouble was at the digsite. It started off pleasantly enough this week at first…
The work continued at the digsite while I was at work for the workend. Celeste, Shalyra, Rugnar, Penny and the Cogswitch twins decided to tackle the new section which likely lead to a Jade deposit. The methane needed to be handled, as well as the structural integrity of the tunnel that was sealed weeks earlier.
The Cogswitch twins came up with a modified drone, using Celeste’s claw drone as a model, to explore the tunnel. Shalyra proposed a bit of engineering that surpassed even Celeste: the drone would capture an image of the tunnel and they would have a holographic representation back at base camp! WOW! The devices would require some parts Shalyra would provide, but Penny and the twins decided to go look for more parts and power cells in Mechagon. Since the MUTT wouldn’t be needed, they would take it with them and make use of the HEAP as a campsite.
Celeste stayed at camp with Rugnar, Suyin, Golbert and Bulbous and his aide. It mostly involved more detailed planning both logistics and financial for the next few weeks of the dig. Thanks to Pandaren fishing, the camp’s stocks were in good shape and below budget. The MUTT and Penny’s expert piloting had shortened the time it took to gather bamboo for the camp structures. In short, the budget was very healthy and we were ahead of schedule! WOO! Bulbous had little to criticize and, oddly, didn’t even try. He did voice skepticism over the plans for exploring the sealed tunnel, but that fell clearly under Celeste’s purview, and he could do little to change her plans. Celeste believed in her friends, believed in the engineering. Bulbous was, according to Rugnar, slowly realizing that a dig led by Celeste would be very different from the typical ones he was a part of. Celeste liked to gather creative friends and usually had very “outside-the-box” ideas. His aide even got a dark look from Bulbous when he voiced amazement at the Mechagon energy cell powered lights in the ruins were a great improvement. He even hoped for a fishing trip he could take part in! HA!
When I returned home in the evening, Celeste told me about how Golbert had organized a report of the current progress so far, in my preferred format, and had a few pictures and lists of artifacts for me to approve. Celeste was home this evening, but said she’d return to camp for the next few days.
Penny and the Cogswitch twins hadn’t returned from Mechagon by the end of the next day. Celeste wasn’t worried. With the MUTT, the HEAP, and the combined minds of the three gnomes, there weren’t any dangers the trio couldn’t overcome. Penny had her comms anyways, and Celeste could see it still registered as being powered. I have absolute faith in them!
Of course, it didn’t stop ol’ Bulbous from giving Celeste an earful about splitting the team and not providing adequate protection for them. Celeste tried to explain that the MUTT’s MAD mode was a lot of protection by itself, and that Penny could make the MUTT dance if she wanted to. He would have none of it and threatened to close the dig and bar Celeste from the League if anything happened to them. What an interfering old busybody!
Rugnar later told me that Celeste had reached for her rifle then, but, despite the murderous looks she gave Bulchor Breakstone, she didn’t shoot him. Instead, she went into the juggle and returned a while later with Nosebleed and a few silverhorn to add venison to the camp’s food stocks. When she first returned, Bulbous apparently marched right up the her and Nosebleed to complain some more, but the direhorn bellowed in anger and thumped his tail so hard on the ground, the dwarf fell on his rear. The other members knew well enough not to laugh, but Bulbous still had suddenly something else to do. HA! GOT ‘EM!
Celeste gave Nosebleed several veggies from the farm in thanks.
Apparently the direhorn will now remain near the camp, from now on! Hehehe…
I remember I had frowned mightily about the story of Bulbous' first big infraction trying to throw his weight around, but, when Celeste progressed on to the part about Nosebleed scaring the daylights out of the self-important dwarf, I had myself a good laugh!
I was glad that Nosebleed would be sticking around to keep an extra eye on Bulbous. I know Nosebleed is about as docile as they come, but, as long as he did just enough to scare Bulbous witless, that’ll be enough for me!
With Bulbous seeming to be under wraps – for now – I was able to return from my workend to resume my work with my blonde-bearded assistant. Work progressed on the documentation of everything Celeste's team (I am always being sure, especially around Bulbous and his crony, to refer to the group as "Celeste's team," quietly enjoying the teeth-grinding it incited in Bulbous) found, and I was quite enjoying myself!
Good news arrived at camp when Suyin showed up with a pandaren couple. Ji-Soo and Huo Stoutgarden were middle-aged farmers who had decided to leave their farm to their children. They happened to be amazing cooks that could turn simple ingredients into delicious meals! The Explorers quickly got attached to Ji-Soo's constant efforts to make sure everyone had had enough food or offers of ''more tea?'' Huo happened to enjoy history, and often regaled the group with stories and lore from Pandaren culture after dinner. During the day the two also took care of the camp from simple tasks to mending torn clothes to making sure everyone's bed was freshened up. Celeste was happy to have them with her group but voiced her concerns about them only taking part in servitude roles. The pandaren, however were typical of their culture. There was a role left unfilled and they were happy to fill it, without complaints. Besides, they were happy to leave the adventures to the younger folks, they said. They’re so great!
The good mood darkened a day or so later when the aforementioned troublesome week resumed, when Bulchor finally decided to use his biggest ''weapon'' to take control of the promising dig. Celeste had already told me she feared her mischievous tracing of a mustache on the face of the clay quilen would come back to bite her in the rear, and bite her it did…
Bulbous asked her for a ''special meeting'' in the tent where Golbert and I usually work, chasing us out rudely first. He called for Celeste and kept his crony to be an ''impartial witness.'' Thanks to his own role as advisor, Rugnar was able to attend as well. Most of the camp was working on their assignments, but, even deep in the ruin, Bulbous was heard roaring on about ''defacing priceless antiquities'' and "complete lack of judgment and professionalism."
Celeste told me later on that Uncle Rugnar basically played the advocate on her part at first, but finally lost it when Bulchor's accusations started leaning towards Celeste's apparent lack of proper teachings and how she was undoubtedly badly raised. In the end, Rugnar punched Bulchor, Celeste held back Bulchor's aide by setting his shoes on fire, and chaos ensued! OH MY GOSH! Bulbous refused Suyin's help in healing his even-more inflated nose and immediately demanded a portal for Ironforge. Celeste happily obliged, glad to get him out of camp. The next day, Uncle Rugnar was summoned to the League headquarters. Everyone feared the situation was quite dire…
Worried and in tears, Celeste told me that she was sure her career as an Explorer was ruined for good. The pandarens in camp didn't care one bit about the mustache on the quilen; Huo even thought it was good and proper that the beasts were made into a joke for once. The opinion of the locals would help Celeste’s case, surely, but she will undoubtedly have to answer for it, sooner rather than later, if Bulbous gets his way!
However, a few hours later, a call came over the comms from one of the Cogswitch twins! Things were progressing great in Mechagon, but one of the parts they needed involved dismantling a large spider tank to get at some circuits near the core and they could really use Celeste's engineering skills!
Celeste was glad for the reprieve and told the gnome that she would go to meet them, after spending an evening with Dordy and I in the House-On-The-Spire. Some time alone with her wife and pup was exactly the balm for her wounds that she needed!
The next morning, which is this morning, she was almost upbeat as she packed for the trip to Mechagon. She plans to take off in the FB here pretty soon. By rights, with Bulbous gone and now Celeste too, Suyin was the authority in camp! Interesting! I bet Suyin will do great!
It had been a great start to the week, getting to meet Ji-Soo and Huo Stoutgarden. I had had the same concerns about them only being left to do the littlest menial tasks, and had been equally impressed with their willingness to do exactly the tasks they were given. I was impressed with their meals, and Huo's history lessons and legends as well, listening enthralled while he spun his tales, recognizing a few of them, but learning far more new ones. The Stoutgardens are so great!
I had half a mind to just sic Nosebleed on Bulbous, however, after Bulbous cornered Celeste to yell at her, especially after Bulbous insinuated she was badly raised, knowing what she knew of Celeste's parents, both adoptive and biological. I am silently glad Rugnar popped Bulbous one good time, and had had to stifle a laugh at the story of Celeste lighting the aide's shoes on fire, but the fact that Celeste came out of it in tears mellowed me considerably.
I'd done my best to hold Celeste and console her as I listened to Celeste express her woes, feeling for Celeste deeply, and I was also deeply concerned about Rugnar's hearing with the League.
So it was that, when Celeste was called away to Mechagon Isle to help the Cogswitches and Penny and looked so much happier for it, I all but cheered! I promised Celeste I'd help Suyin keep things going as well as humanly possible, and now I’m about to go see Celeste off with a hug and a kiss. Hopefully Celeste would come back to a good report on the site!
I can hear Celeste downstairs doing her pre-flight checklist on the Flying Nosebleed, so she must be packed up and ready to go. Time to go give her that send-off! I hope she has a great time on Mechagon Isle, and cheers up a lot with Penny and the twins! I can’t wait to see what they bring back, and I can’t wait to see what happens next! I also can’t wait to see what the heck is going on with this dream I keep having… Hopefully all things go well and end well, and we can keep on going about our adventures in PEACE! YAY!
Nat smiled at that happy thought as she hurriedly snapped her diary shut, poked her pen back into the mechanical inkwell, and returned the items to their proper places in her office. Dashing downstairs as quickly as she could without her clumsy self falling down the staircase, she zipped over to Celeste, who was just completing her checklist, telling Nat she was about to come up to say goodbye for now. Dordy, sensing the excitement, came along as well, wanting his own sendoff. Celeste scooped Dordy up, and he had himself a nice time licking both their faces while they had a group family hug. After a kiss goodbye, the ingenious engineer Blinked up into the cockpit of the Flying Nosebleed, and commenced liftoff. Waving to Nat and Dordy, who waved back (Nat moving Dordy’s paw to make him wave while Dordy’s tongue lolled out as he wagged his tail excitedly), and Nat turned to get ready for the digsite herself.
The rest of the day passed in peace, what with Bulbous and his crony gone. Suyin, Ji-Soo, and Huo entertained the group over a lunch of traditional pandaren seasoned noodles and broth with more ancient legends, and the Explorer’s League dwarves gobbled it up (the food and the lore) happily, just like everyone else. The group planned for Celeste’s return, getting schematics drawn up for how to approach the new, potentially methane-filled corridor, cataloguing new little bits and bobs they found, and generally just taking the day easy.
When Nat returned home for dinner, she was quite worn out from the week. With a full belly, a bath, and a now a warm bed, it was with both trepidation and excitement that she fell asleep. There were plenty more adventures to be had, and she was excited for them to come! And, whatever came for Celeste and Rugnar after Bulbous’ debacle the day before, they would figure it out and beat it, as always. Of that she was sure!
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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Jun 8, 2023 12:34:55 GMT
(( Important notes: The following post contains a mention of Fyrakk the Blazing, a character created by Blizzard. I take no credit for his creation or his lore, and all credit goes to Blizzard. Also, I did not want to post Nat's dream in two different places on the same site, nor did I want to go through and edit the entire thing to read in the first person, so I created a clickable link to where I posted the dream elsewhere. )) June the Eighth
The low, slow, gentle waves rolled in one after another, splashing softly on the sandy shore. A cool breeze blew in with it, cooling the tropical beach and causing the jungle beyond it to slowly dance and sway with the waves. Seagulls rode the thermals, their eyes constantly downward on the scene below, on both sides of the bay, where a village on stilts and a beach with a campfire both offered choice morsels, if only a well-timed dive-bomb could be achieved. Deterring them from the beach was a molten corgi who defended his meals well, pretending to snooze by the fire, but ready to do battle at a moment’s notice.
Also next to the fire, a young human woman in a black bikini with purple trim stretched out on a beach towel while an older, wizened pandaren woman prepared breakfast and breakfast tea. The tea’s scent was drowned out by the faintly smoky smell of the campfire and the smell of the eggs, bacon, and pandaren pancakes, which were richer and fluffier thanks to some unknown pandaren spin on them. Sprawled out in front of the human woman on the beach towel were a diary and a mechanical inkwell.
While Suyin worked on breakfast, insisting on cooking it herself without help as a treat to Nat (with Nat blushing and thanking her extensively), Nat thought about the simple, fun, mostly uneventful week she’d had, compared to last week. That dream kept popping up, but, other than that, not much had happened, except making a brand new friend, who was an old friend of Grim’s. Smiling at that happy thought, she pressed the button that popped out the mechanical pen from her inkwell and began to write.
Dear diary,
It’s been a mostly peaceful week! Well, less so on the Dragon Isles, where Fyrakk the Blazing is zooming around terrorizing the area and popping up here and there in different regions of the continent to burn stuff. Heck those Primal Incarnate dragons! Adventurers sure are getting a lot of good loot every time they stop him, though!
But yeah, aside from that, it’s been peaceful! With Bulbous gone from the digsite, it’s been a happy place! Granted, without leadership from Celeste, the ingenuity of Celeste and the three gnomes, and the pandaren cultural tendency to “Slow down; life is to be savored,” there hasn’t been much progress on the archaeology here. We’ve mostly just been listening to the Stoutgarden pandaren couple’s legends and eating and drinking lots of good food and drink in between fixing up the camp and cleaning it and doing maintenance on stuff, as well as documenting and cataloguing things. I’m sure when Celeste gets back, we’ll have more going on in there!
Aside from that, I also made a new friend! I was sitting and enjoying some shade on a bench in Lion’s Rest when a gnome girl came along! She had short pink hair, bright, intelligent eyes, and quite an assertive personality. She’s really friendly though! Her name is Trixy Mechantrix, and she, like most gnomes, is an engineer and inventor! But, unlike most gnomes, she’s also a protection warrior that’s also involved in special operations! She said she was a T.A.N.C. jumper, which stands for Tremendous Apex, Nadir Cut. That’s much like the H.A.L.O. (High Altitude, Low Opening) jumping my friends and I have done in a few missions in our past, except the name has a gnomish spin on it and is way cooler, AND she does it professionally, instead of only a few times ever!
Now here’s the REAL kicker: SHE KNOWS GRIM’UN OAKENBLOOM! She apparently knew him from when Grim was in a different group thirteen years ago or so, and, what’s more, knowing Grim is RECENT HISTORY to her!
Trixy was apparently messing around with wormhole technology back when it was still a bit new and, in a technical accident, she got launched thirteen years into the future! Goodness gracious! She had a lot of catching up to do, too, so I updated her on things we take for granted, like why the Park and all its surrounding buildings are gone, replaced now with Lion’s Rest, and why there are now non-feral worgen running around, and the origin of the Gilnean worgen, and so much other stuff! She has such a fascinating story; I can’t wait to get to know her better and go on adventures with her and stuff!
I finally wrote down my dream I’ve been having, too! It’s clear I’m going to have to go do this thing finally, or this will continue to startle me awake just like it has for like the past ten years! I wrote it down on another piece of paper, so I’ll just tuck that into my diary, right in this space. Here it is:
I always wake up with my heart racing from that one. I know I’m going to have to face this soon. I also know that there’s no way my friends will allow me to go alone, despite this being nothing more than a selfish grab for power. What a stupid thing to risk all their lives for! Yet they’ll insist upon coming anyway, knowing them, and… a selfish part of me is glad for it. I don’t know what would happen to me if I go alone.
Aside from these few things, the week has been super quiet. Celeste is due home soon, though, so things should pick back up here before too long! I can’t wait to see what happens next! YAY!
Nat giggled as she scrawled in the final word, the word she used to end all her diary posts, wanting her posts to reflect her positive, hopeful, happy outlook on life no matter what sort of bad thing might happen. Not quite satisfied with her very short post, she poked her mechanical pen back into the mechanical inkwell, smiling at the handmade gift from Celeste. She replaced the diary and inkwell in her pack, sitting up: Breakfast was ready!
Nat thoroughly enjoyed the eggs, bacon, and especially the pandaren pancakes. Suyin’s breakfast tea was quite good as well, and she even had a few refills, as well as a second plate. Breakfast on the beach with a good friend was a great way to start the day!
After that was fishing, before the mists cleared for the morning, and then swimming after the fish stopped biting. Then there was a late arrival to the digsite, something Suyin and the Stoutgardens insisted was a pandaren way of life to work on a pandaren historical site. More of the same cataloguing, lunch, and listening to old pandaren legends ensued, followed by a little more work, and then an early departure back to everyone’s peaceful homesteads.
Nat hung out with Other Nat for dinner at Anglers Wharf, then spent the rest of the evening reading on the veranda overlooking the South Seas before bed. It was a typical pandaren ending to a typical pandaren minication, and Nat knew she wouldn’t mind another of these from time to time!
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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Jun 15, 2023 13:48:13 GMT
June the Fifteenth The scene in the workshop/hangar in the first sublevel of the House-On-The-Spire was a rather quieter one than usual. No clanging of a hammer, no hissing of a welding torch, no clicking from a ratchet or the operation of spinning gears. There was the usual mess of a few projects in progress, but there was no one in the middle of any of them, working away the hours. Instead, the lights from the fish tank of mechanical fish and the hanging lanterns illuminated a different scene altogether.
Celeste was working, yes, but she was seated at the workbench at a space entirely devoid of random spare parts and tools, totally in the zone as she worked, as was her way. Before her sat a draenei hologram device, displaying image after image after image of a subterranean mogu tunnel, complete with mogu frescos, each image appearing to be slightly further down the same tunnel than the one before it.
The tunnel was also full of pandaren skeletons and the shattered stone skins of mogu people.
Nat, seated next to Celeste, shuddered at the images, feeling a bit sad at what had happened there. She turned away to a happier sight – Dordy had hopped up a pile of crates and scampered onto the workbench, curled up into a ball, and gone to sleep with them at the back of the bench instead of at their feet as he usually did. Smiling at Dordy and feeling a little better, she shifted her gaze once again. Before her lay her open diary, opened to the next blank page, as well as her mechanical inkwell and coffee mugs for her and Celeste. Nat poked the button that popped out her pen, thought for a moment more, and then she began to write.
Dear diary,
Gosh, did this week take an unexpected turn! Most of it was exciting, though… I think we’re in for a treat at the dig site if we can get past another VERY unexpected obstacle!
I also had that spooky dream a few more times. I’m going to have to do something about it. The draw is just too strong… I just need to work up the courage to ask my friends if they will help me, and just go do it!
As far as the dig goes, Celeste's return from Mechagon with Penny and the Cogswitch gnome twins was done without much fanfare, though we did have a welcome-back dinner from Other Nat at Angles Wharf! The group had taken apart the spider tank and retrieved an intact optical logic circuit with some lenses. It was basically what allowed the machine to 'see' things and interpret them into data like foes to target or objects to move around. It would give the drone greater resolution and autonomy as it ventured into the new tunnels! How exciting! The Cogswitch twins were excited to try it out and came back with eyes full of marvel at the many gadgets they found in Mechagon. They wanted to bring back way too many things, so Celeste had instead promised to bring them there again – with Nosebleed – after the dig was finished.
For the moment, the twins had refused to take a rest and started immediately working on the drone and discussing with Shalyra about the applications of the draenei's technology with what they had brought back. Penny had returned to tend to the farm for a day and rest. The gnome twins’ excitement over all the new technology was so intense, it even distracted them from their infatuation with Penny enough to let her go! HA!
Celeste had visited the camp, talking with everyone to know how things were coming along. She didn't look at all surprised that the digsite had continued progressing smoothly without her; after all, she had picked people who didn't need hand-holding for that very reason!
On her return, she had stayed at the House-On-The Spire with me, thankful for some alone time with me and for us to catch up on what each other had been up to. Dordy had been thrilled to see her, of course, and she found the time to play with him as well! It was so cute!
Celeste had brought back a Quilen-shaped plushie for Dordy to play with too, and a fresh cake from the bakery in Boralus for me! Which of course meant she and Dordy enjoyed it too. It was really good, and plenty for all!
In the morning after her return, Celeste traveled to Ironforge. She visited her uncle and took stock of the situation after the fight in the tent. When I arrived at Angler's Wharf in the evening, I found Celeste putting on a brave face, even telling her usual outlandish stories to entertain the crowd. One involved an army of troggs that attacked the HEAP which had been turned into a reinforced bunker. Some details were left out (the war may or may not have been just a tiff with a single drunken trogg...). However, later at home, Celeste said that Uncle Rugnar had been barred from the dig and that Bulbous was now in charge! How AWFUL! They can’t just take Celeste’s discover away from her like that! However, the Catch of My Life didn't look as defeated as I would have expected. I knew Celeste had a plan, a decisive one! She said she was going to Stormwind tomorrow to talk to someone, but wouldn't say who, and she stayed up late at night making plans and working on something in her workshop.
The next morning, when I got up to get to work, she would find a package sitting on the kitchen table. There was a tag on it that said: For Baron Revilgaz. One F.I.N. or Fish Interceptor Net. On the back was a doodle of what looked like a happy goblin and something floating on top of the water that apparently automatically netted a fish if you brought one caught close to it, without having the need for someone to help. It was another device from the book I gave Celeste on fishing engineering designs for Winter Veil. Celeste then wrote: Once you get that parrot, just let it go free back to the jungle. This was because of a trade offer I had going with them for work in which I was to “invent something cool” in exchange for… a parrot?! HA! Anyway, Celeste helped save a parrot! This is one of the many reasons I love her!
On my last day at work, Celeste returned late in the day after first visiting Stormwind, then going to the League in Ironforge. She arrived with Uncle Rugnar in tow and… Bulbous too. How WEIRD!
There were new changes to the dig, she said. The funding and supplies were now completely taken over… by CELESTE! Bulbous’ family and their riches no longer had any hold. Rugnar was reinstated as an advisor. As for Bulchor, Celeste had graciously allowed him to continue to take part in the dig, saying that the academic adventure should be all that mattered beyond petty rivalries and pride. Bulchor and his crony didn’t say much, but seemed to be willing to work with the others. HA! Brought back down off his high pedestal! But he’s been alright since then, so I suppose we should be nice to him as long as he’s nice to us. I just hope he’s not scheming again…
Later, Celeste told me that she had used the money her adoptive mother and father had left her. A considerable fund that she had felt unworthy of, because she had betrayed them when joining their former gang. However, this dig was important, she felt, for her friends (both Pandaren and not). She knew her parents would approve! She’s so amazing, making that sort of sacrifice for her archaeology, for history, and especially for all her friends!
So now Celeste is firmly in charge, though the League now expects more frequent reports and will be watching for any mistakes the junior Explorer might make. Not to pounce on her mishaps, but to make sure the dig remained professional. Celeste, smiling, wasn’t worried.
The camp sure was the next morning! Shalyra, the Cogswitch twins, Penny and Celeste worked on the probe that would explore the new tunnel. Parts, wires and engineering tools were scattered on the work tables in the tent adjacent to the one Golbert and I work in. Everyone was eager to see what the engineers would create!
Golbert had compiled a list of the items brought back from Mechagon as well as a current inventory of the camp’s food stocks.
He presented me with the lists along with a cup of coffee, seasoned with my preferred liquid hazelnut creamer. He’s so great! The food stocks were of particular interest as they were getting low, however.
The Stoutgardens offered to visit Penny’s farm to see what could be harvested. They agreed to take Nosebleed when Celeste offered, enjoying the novelty such a great beast offered.
Aside from the vegetables, the camp’s stocks would need to be supplemented with protein. As Celeste was currently quite busy, someone else would likely need to go fishing. Uncle Rugnar offered to go hunting and set out early with Celeste’s rifle and his flying machine to visit the hunting grounds further West and North.
Bulbous and his crony stayed in the ruins, exploring and working on their own thing away from everyone. Yeah, that’s not fishy at all…
But, I just drank my coffee and worked, arranging like items with like according to Golbert's inventory lists and preparing things for Celeste's and Rugnar's returns.
I was overjoyed that Celeste had taken back her months of hard work from Bulbous Bulchor, though I regretted that it had taken her parents' money to do so. I endeavored therefore, for the sake of Celeste's parents' love and care for their daughter just as much as for the sake of Celeste's months of hard work and hopes and dreams of being an Explorer's League member, to ensure that I did my part to put Celeste in the very best position to succeed!
Taking another sip of coffee, I got a few directions issued to Golbert (with many issuings of "erm..." due to her awkward feelings leading anyone at all) and then turned back to the documents at hand. I had everything arranged for everyone's return, and, between the neatly organized engineering supplies and the anticipated return of the hunter and farmers, I was sure that the dig would be well supplied moving forward!
Now I just had to make sure I kept at least one eye on Bulbous, in case he planned to scheme further...
Breakfast was delivered by Ji-Soo to the workshop the following morning as the technical team was in an eager frenzy to complete the drone and didn’t show up at the outdoor cafeteria onsite.
Just before lunch, the buzzing of a drone was heard back at the digsite, and the engineers streamed out of their tent as they followed a modified version of Celeste’s hook drone. The drone seemed to be flying without anyone controlling it! COOL! It zoomed this way and that, apparently taking a look around the whole camp, even zooming into my work tent and sending a few papers flying. Oops! Celeste apologized with a grin as the group passed by. The drone then flew down into the ruins and continued exploring there.
I thoroughly enjoyed breakfast in the workshop with friends old and new! I worked diligently to help with what engineering knowledge I have, then, later in the camp when the drone was taking its maiden test flight and it flew into the tent and blew papers around, I gasped in surprise, but then giggled at Celeste's mischievous expression.
Excited enough to get all bouncy, I followed Celeste out and watched as the drone went down into the ruins and began its true mission. This was it! What we'd all been waiting for!
The group followed the drone and set up some instruments on a table in the quilen’s chamber. Shalyra stayed with Celeste to finagle wires and connections while the three gnomes followed the drone into the ruins, which was being chased by an excited Dordy, who thought it was all a fun game. He’s so adorable!
“We are… getting a projection!” Shalyra cheered in her mild draenei accent as a holographic 3D map of the ruins gradually came into view. The image was projected a few inches over a large disc that glowed blue. COOL!
“That’s so amazing!” Celeste exclaimed, impressed.
“Wait until I adjust the resolution,” Shalyra grinned and played with a dial or two. The image became focused until even the frescos could be discerned in the projection! The drone even picked up the gnomes and Dordy! Their imaged flickered as they moved about and the drone resent their location each time.
Everyone in camp came to see the projection. The Pandarens were amazed, but didn’t stay long. The dwarves crowded around the engineers. None of them had ever explored a ruin this way! Except for Rugnar who knew his niece, the other dwarves seemed to finally understand what a dig with Celeste would be like.
“We have a map,” Celeste said in her comm, signaling Penny that the test worked and the drone could be sent into the new tunnel for its real mission.
I giggled at Dordy chasing the drone, giggling further to see the images of the pup sent back in various stages of Dordy mid-bound, tongue lolling out, eyes wide and bright with excitement and glee. I could hear his yip-yip-yipping echoing back to our place in the quilen's chamber. Smiling lovingly at the image, I turned my attention to the ruins themselves, focusing on the task as the team prepared to send the drone into the new tunnel. Wondering with baited breath what wonders we might discover this time, I prepared for the drone's return so I could scoop up Dordy, not wanting him to follow the drone into the methane gas.
"Gosh," I said. "This is it... after all these weeks, we'll find out what's in that heckin' tunnel! I can't wait to see!"
Penny, soon piloting the MUTT, removed just enough of the materials Celeste had placed weeks earlier in the new tunnel’s entrance to let the drone through. The gas detector on the MUTT showed no presence of methane, but the tunnel was boarded back just the same.
Even with the way back blocked again, the drone’s signal still reached the command post in the quilen room. What a great bunch of engineers we have on our team!
As the drone progressed slowly through the tunnel, the map appeared automatically from the tunnel entrance where it started in the hologram of the ruins.
Celeste's creative genius, the three gnomes' technical ingenuity, and the draenei's wondrous holographic technology had produced one of the most amazing -- if not THE most amazing -- bit of engineering I had ever seen!
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other often, wringing my hands and pressing my lips together tightly to keep from squealing with excitement and clapping my hands. This was some of the coolest stuff I'd ever seen!
Dordy, sensing my excitement, wriggled free from where I had my arms around him, and, wringing my hands, I lost a hold on him. Scooping him back up, I calmed him (and myself) and went on watching. This was so exciting!
The tunnel had collapsed here and there over the years, from what we were seeing on the holographic display the drone was sending back to us. Though the drone managed to pass through, it was a tight fit in some places!
The tunnel wound further down and away for several hundred yards in a mostly straight line. Old support beams showed up on the hologram.
After what seemed like hours, the tunnel widened. That’s when the skeletons started appearing…
The bodies were clearly Pandaren and lying in the direction of the exit, as if the unfortunate souls had died fleeing from something deeper in.
The drone took longer, carefully mapping each new find in detail before buzzing to the next.
Further in, broken pieces of stone-skinned mogu lay surrounded by more Pandaren bodies. Broken and ancient mining tools suggested the Pandarens had revolted against their slavers. Goodness gracious!
Suddenly, the tunnel opened up much wider! The drone managed to pick up the edges of apparent jade deposits in different states of being mined before it suddenly just… WENT OFFLINE! Oh, NO!
Everyone around the table gasped in surprise, but what really sent a shiver down the spines of the Explorers gathered there was the soft prayer Ji-Soo uttered and what her husband said as he gathered her in his large arms.
“Look, there…” Huo pointed to the very edge of hologram, likely the last image the drone had managed to capture. The grainy but unmistakable shape of a clawed paw, swiping at the drone from the darkness…
My excitement had quickly turned to horror at the sight of all the little holographic skeletons. I shuddered, moving closer to Celeste and huddling close to her. The more carnage was revealed, the more she wanted to hide behind Celeste…
When the drone went into the large room with the jade deposits, though, I lit up for a quick moment, eyes widening at all the jade, but then the drone went offline and the final, frightening image froze on the holographic display.
"Goodness gracious!" I blurted out. "Is that... is that an active quilen!? Did it go in and get all the miners and cause that revolt?! Ohmigosh!"
Celeste took a moment to give me a hug, then faced the group, her face quite serious.
“Penny, get in the MUTT, make sure its gun arm is ready. Go and close that tunnel. Use the jackhammer in the tool arm to collapse it. Once you’re done, leave the MUTT in MAD mode and make sure the deadly countermeasures are operational. I’ll grab my rifle and watch your back.” She barked out the orders using her military tone. She was all business now!
“Shalyra, I’ll need to get a copy of that hologram. I need to report this to the League. Is that possible?” When the draenei nodded, she added: “Use the twins to help you and when you’re done, bring this material back topside.”
She then addressed Suyin and the Stoutgardens: “A nice meal and some tea would help soothe our nerves if you please. Suyin, this dig has very large implications for Pandaren history, not to mention whatever is down there. I think Nat’s suggestion that it’s a quilen is right. Who knows how powerful it is? Your people need to be warned.”
Next, she looked at the dwarves. “I’m shutting this dig down until further notice. I can’t risk the safety of the group. Everyone will be on retainer while we decide how to proceed. Uncle Rugnar, Bulchor, I’d like your advice on how to address the League and plan our next steps.”
“Nat, Golbert, if you could secure everything we have so far for transportation to Ironforge, that would be great.”
“You all have assignments, folks. No one except Penny and I are allowed inside the ruins and once we’re out, they will be off limits for everyone. Let’s get to it folks!”
I boggled at Celeste as Celeste sprang into action, military commander style. Impressed, I waited patiently for my turn to receive instructions, nodding immediately when I got them and turning to obey. I was terrified for Celeste and our dear friend Penny, who were going in close to that gas and that THING, the quilen or whatever it might be, with no one but just the two of them!
Dutifully, I put it from my mind and did what I was told, reflecting upon the fact that the shoe was usually on the other foot, Celeste worrying about me as I go off on Whitewind Company missions. I put that from my mind as well, setting about securing everything of importance to the dig and loading it into the Flying Nosebleed's cargo hold for transportation, loading anything that didn't fit carefully into Nosebleed's cargo nets. I distracted herself from Celeste's and Penny's peril, telling myself that Penny was amazing with the MUTT, the MUTT could handle just about anything, and that Celeste was an excellent shot with that rifle, and, if Celeste could break into Torghast, free two prisoners, and escape to tell the tale, one (she hoped it was just one) quilen would be nothing by comparison. Reassured, I distracted herself with her work, then waited topside with Suyin, sipping at a calming tea but only picking at my food. I guess it was a mark of my concern that my otherwise voracious appetite was so tempered!
Another pleasantly distracting thought was that Celeste's quick, decisive leadership, her security for everything from the people to the dig's findings and supplies, and her immediate usage of each person's greatest strength and application to the appropriate task oughta stymie ol' Bulbous Bulchor...
Celeste and Penny returned as promised, unscathed and having encountered nothing at the entrance to the tunnel, which was now collapsed. What a RELIEF! They joined everyone for some food. Celeste remained mostly quiet, and I knew that her thoughts were undoubtedly working overtime to tackle this new problem. Once she was done, she offered to open a portal for those that wanted to head home. Shalyra opted to visit the Angler's Wharf some more and explore Pandaria for the next few days. The Stoutgardens offered to be her guide. They’re gong to have so much fun! Suyin would head home after seeing a few people about the latest development at the digsite. Golbert headed back to Ironforge, but said he would be delighted to continue once the dig was safe again. YAY! I’m glad he’s coming back! He’s awesome! The Cogswitch twins asked to borrow the HEAP, as they were keen on exploring Mechagon a bit more. Rugnar, Bulbous, and his aide headed back to Ironforge as well.
So it was that finally, Celeste and I were left alone to go back to the House-On-The-Spire to rest. Later in the evening, Celeste brought me a nice glass of cool white wine and settled down with me on our veranda. For now, the stress of the unknown monster seemed to be drowned out by the cool sea breeze, the glowing suncrawlers and the presence of the one each of us adored above all else in our arms...
Now, this morning, Celeste is trying to figure out any clues or develop any strategies that might tell us what exactly we’re looking at down in that horrible room, and what we might do about it. So far, it seems to be a real boondoggle!
The morning has been great otherwise, with a hot, hearty breakfast out on the veranda overlooking the South Seas. We even saw a pair of whales off in the distance! Humpback whales, just surfacing to blow off stale air before curling back under the water, their great fins making a big splash as they dove back under together. It was so COOL!
I don’t know what we might do about this new problem, but I bet Celeste will think of something cool. She always does! She’s so smart! I can’t wait to see what she comes up with, and how things go! We’ll have that room cleared out in no time, and then we can explore it! YAY!
Nat wiggled with excitement as she finished up her post, snapping her diary shut and poking her pen back into her mechanical inkwell. She took her diary and inkwell upstairs to her office, putting the diary back on the shelf and the inkwell back in its desk drawer. Heading back downstairs, she collected her mug and Celeste’s and took them for refills, then went back downstairs once more.
Celeste snapped out of it long enough to discuss her preliminary thoughts on the subject, which was basically that she needed to study it more for tiny, easy-to-miss clues in order to figure something out. The two talked it over for a while, looking and not seeing anything just yet. They looked until their coffee was finished and then put it aside for the time being, as Dordy had gotten up, shaken himself out, and brought Celeste and Nat his favorite toy… her oldest wrench!
Keep-Away with Dordy lasted a little while in the workshop/hangar until Celeste had the idea to take the game to the beach. Packing a lunch ahead of time and changing into bikinis, the two got Dordy’s aviator goggles on (which always excited Dordy; he loved flying!) and got themselves onto Onyx’s back for a quick swoop down to Turtle Beach.
Other Nat and a few pandaren friends from Anglers Wharf came down to hang out as well, bringing their own lunches with them (Dordy had a little of everyone’s lunches, making him even happier). The afternoon and evening proceeded with different people playing Keep-Away with Dordy and that wrench, swimming in the gentle waves close to the beach, and, at the end of the evening, a dinner next to the waves consisting of a wide variety of catches the Anglers had all made that day and the day before.
By the time dinner was over, Nat felt as full as she was sure Dordy must feel, and all worn out from playing. Everyone decided it was time to go home for the evening, and Nat enjoyed a warm bath before bed. She went to sleep with Celeste in her arms and Dordy at their feet, her head full of thoughts of what they might do at the digsite. When she went to sleep, however, that spooky dream returned once more…
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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Jun 22, 2023 12:42:12 GMT
June the Twenty-Second The scene in the workshop/hangar of the House-On-The-Spire was once again a quiet one, strangely devoid of the sounds of mechanical tinkering and the bustle of activity. Once again, Celeste and Nat sat at the workbench, with Celeste alternately staring at schematics and thinking, or else drawing up yet another rough draft of her latest invention, or else doodling in the schematics’ margins. Currently, she was doing the former, staring at a schematic of a metal ball with legs and what appeared to be a cannon issuing forth from the front. Measurements and included parts (labeled with numbers, with a key at the bottom) covered the large sheet of parchment. The doodles in the margins included fish, shellfish, sea turtles, fishing rods, and, in Celeste’s usual silly tendency with her doodles, one of Nat surrounded by tables covered in papers, one of two gnome males bringing flowers, cards, and candy to a female mechagnome, a direhorn piloting the MUTT, and one Nosebleed-sized Dordy chasing a dwarf whose nose was the size of his whole face.
Nat giggled to see that last doodle, knowing full well this schematic would never be taken out of the house. There was enough drama on that front. Still, it gave her a sort of petty satisfaction to have a laugh at that one, as she was sure it must have been satisfying for Celeste to doodle it out. She looked at the other schematics. Similar doodles, both daydreams and silly alike, littered different schematics of different measurements of the same device, which used various parts in different ones, or else the same ones, but in a different place. Celeste sure had her thinking cap on!
Nat turned to her own pages, the diary opened before her. She thought of the simplistic week she’d had. There wasn’t really much to it. She missed the more active weeks, and she definitely missed Deathrolls. People had just been so busy lately! She heaved a sigh, reaching for her coffee for a sip, and then for her mechanical inkwell, poking the button that popped out her mechanical pen, and began to write.
Dear diary,
Another simple week has come and gone. No Deathrolls, no Whitewind Company mission. Everyone has had their own things going on. I really hope we’re able to return to that soon!
Nothing has changed on the Dragon Isles. The campaign continues in much the same state as last I wrote of it.
Things sure have changed at the digsite though!
Celeste traveled to Ironforge on Monday to meet with the Explorer’s League officials. She had a few plans for dealing with the unknown creature in the tunnels that knocked our drone out last week. I hope we’re able to recover it! It has some amazing technology in it! I think we’ll manage just fine... after all, Celeste and I have faced a devilsaur once; how bad could a quilen be?
The meeting hadn’t gone as smoothly as she’d hoped, though. The League members were interested in her plans and even applauded her for thinking of the safety of her people first.
Unfortunately, ol’ Bulchor took the opportunity to talk about how Celeste’s use of the drone had been impulsive and with very little thought to what may have been hiding in those tunnels. The creature was the proof, he said. What if other things lay dormant in that tunnel? Mogu or powerful sha?
It was a blatant attempt at knocking Celeste down again, but it gained very little traction. As the drone had been an unmanned drone, there was no safety risked, and no damage to anything but the drone itself. Bulbous Bulchor essentially got told, politely, to hush up! HA!
Celeste said she would see about building a trap to capture or destroy the creature in the tunnels. The Pandarens had agreed with her plan, thinking the monster was more a priority than digging up the past.
So, she returned home with Uncle Rugnar in tow to spend more hours in the workshop drumming up clever devices to catch an unknown foe.
I admit, I had grinned with satisfaction at the story of Bulbous Bulchor's failure to pull Celeste down again. I was really glad that this Ironforge visit had gone so much better than the prior one, and excited about the idea of getting the creature in the cave trapped!
I worked with Celeste, Penny, and Uncle Rugnar in the workshop while the rest of the team awaited Celeste's word that it was safe to return to the digsite. I’m learning new engineering stuff here and there all the time, but I remain far from Celeste's and Penny's level of expertise with it. Still, I know enough for this... building a trap!
She’s been spending a lot of time at the workbench, looking over several schematics (many half-finished, as Celeste would have new ideas occur to her and push her current schematic aside for the moment – I do love her silly doodles in the margins though!) as well as several more trapping devices (also half-finished, and for the same reason). Machine parts and tools have been lying about everywhere all week. It’s a typical, endearing scene of a Celeste hard at work, and the four of us (plus Dordy) have been having fun!
“I think that cryo gun idea you have, Penny, is the best we have so far. It’ll require some modifications for the MUTT, as the tunnel is too small to use the same setup we used against the tar monsters. There’s just no room to put a seat and gun on the arm again. We could clear out the water tank and pump from the chassis to make room for the gas tanks and power cells though. I’m worried about the limited space, which won’t give us many shots. If whatever is in that tunnel is a quilen, it’ll be faster than a tar monster…”
Celeste pulled out the schematic for the cryo gun with a seat for Penny on the MUTT’s left arm that was used weeks before in Un’goro Crater. “Freezing that quilen could give us a chance to capture it for study, or time enough to safely destroy if it comes to that. Since it’s made of stone, I think we could freeze it easily enough.”
"Ooooh, yes," I said. "Studying it alive would be really neat, and probably turn up all kinds of handy knowledge!"
I turned my eyes to the schematic, looking it over.
"Hmm... y'know, Penny's small, and used to piloting from tight spaces... what if, with the room cleared out from removing the water tank and pump, Penny could just take a temporary seat in the torso, and operate the cryo-gun from there, while you pilot the MUTT, Celeste? Do you think there would be room from there? The gun could even protrude from the torso as well, if there isn't room out wide on the arm..."
“That could work if the tunnels were wider. As it is, the MUTT currently won’t even fit. We’d have to remove most of the plating on it again to make it smaller…”
She moved to the hologram of the tunnels and gestured to a few very narrow places.
“That would leave Penny way too exposed, even if we did find a way to fit her in the torso. Since we’d have to modify the MUTT anyways, maybe we could try a different angle. We only need a way to try and aim a cryo gun at that quilen. We don’t need the MUTT so much as a vehicle adapted for our purposes.”
She turned to face everyone then grabbed a piece of paper from a workbench and started drawing.
“With the uneven flooring in the tunnel, we need something versatile, but still strong enough to take some damage. Penny, your natural piloting skills would be our best bet too. So create a simple chassis, add… legs. Lotsa legs all around. We house power cells and gas tanks in the back section and… there we have it. PEnny’s Blaster Ball and LEgs, which we’ll conveniently call the PEBBLE.”
Her rough schematic showed an armored sphere just big enough to put in some controls and motor functions with Penny in a pilot’s seat in the middle. Protruding every which way out of the ball are mechanized spider legs to help navigate the tunnel. Attached to the back of the sphere is a casing and the cryo gun is underneath it. It basically looked like a smaller, rounder spider tank with more legs. Gosh, Celeste is such a genius!
“With all our minds and the help of the twins, I think this could work, if Penny wants to volunteer of course. I’ll work on retrofitting the MUTT as a backup.”
"Awwww!" I exclaimed. "It looks like the Dordy Bubble! I bet Penny would love to pilot this, wouldn't you, Penny?"
"I concur that this vehicle would suffice for our needs," squeaked Penny. "And I would certainly enjoy piloting such a mechanical marvel, yes!"
"Och," Rugnar grinned through his beard. "The things ye come up with, lass. Yer a genius, aye!"
Dordy, sensing the sudden excitement, darted out from under the workbench where he'd been snoozing and began running around the MUTT in circles, yip-yip-yipping.
With that, the little group of engineers crowded around Celeste's rough schematic. I placed a call over the comms to ask the twins when they might be able to come over and help with a new mechanical vehicle, then returned to the group to see what Celeste might want to do first.
The Cogswitch twins spent a little time with us, helping dream up schematics, and they’ve visited a few times again since. It’s still a work in progress. I wouldn’t be surprised if it took all through the workend to get it designed and then built right!
Penny and the twins have been over a number of times since, throughout the week. Rugnar’s been hanging out, staying in the guest room of the House-On-The-Spire with us since the camp is closed until that quilen, or whatever it might be, is taken care of. We’ve got several variations of the PEBBLE drawn up, some better than others, Celeste says. I think we’ll have a final draft done soon, and will be able to begin construction!
That’s been it for the week, aside from that recurring dream about going to that dread place still happening every few nights. There’s just no way around it – I’m going to have to go. But… much as they might want to come, should I REALLY invite my bestie Nah and the others? I don’t want to risk their LIVES over this…
Yet we do just that, as it turns out, on many of our weekly missions we used to do. Still, nothing we’ve done has been remotely THIS dangerous…
Oh well. We’ll handle whatever comes our way, just as we always have!
Gosh, I can’t wait to be rid of that dream! And I REALLY can’t wait to see how the new PEBBLE works out for us! I bet this is the right answer to this problem, and I can’t wait to see it all in action! YAY!
Nat grinned over at Celeste’s current schematic, which was getting the cryo-gun higher from the ground and less length to the muzzle to improve mobility over uneven, broken tunnel, as well as a maneuverable dome for a base to the gun to allow it to be aimed around that way instead of by maneuvering the whole vehicle itself. A doodle in the corner had the PEBBLE at the side of a creek with a fishing rod instead of a cryo-gun, with the rod bent double as the PEBBLE fought a huge fish, visible under the waterline. Nat smiled fondly at the doodle, remembering the pleasant, peaceful weekend Celeste had enjoyed while Nat was at work, something she’d needed after the stress of the dig – gas, quilen, League standing, and especially Bulbous Bulchor – and she could see where Celeste’s mind partly was.
With that in mind, Nat poked her pen back into its home in the mechanical inkwell, closed her diary shut, and took those and their coffee mugs upstairs. Depositing her inkwell onto her desk and her diary back into its home on one of her office bookshelves, she refilled the mugs and brought Celeste her coffee. Celeste, fully immersed, fully in the zone, didn’t say a word to Nat. She just picked up her coffee and sipped at it. Nat smiled again. She knew Celeste was appreciative; there was no thanks needed. She was in the zone right now!
Nat sat back down at her spot at the workbench, pulling a spare bit of parchment to herself. She began to doodle. Her doodles were less skillful than Celeste, but it still was plain to see that a black-haired woman and a woman in a wide-brimmed fishing hat sat next to a creek in a very different setting than the ones they usually fished at here in the Krasarang Wilds or Turtle Bay: This one had towering redwood trees on the side of a mountain, dotted here and there with patches of snow where the sun never could quite reach. A perfect getaway from a hot jungle in the warmer part of the year, and plenty of great fishing to be had! Above the picture, she finished off her drawing by writing in a large, bold question mark.
Grinning, she slid the doodle, question mark and all, over toward Celeste. The doodle coming to rest right at the side of Celeste’s current schematic drew Celeste’s eyes, and she broke into a grin herself!
Late that morning, Celeste, Rugnar, and Nat were sitting in camping chairs, rods in the river. Penny had opted to stay home and rest. As this was just a day trip, there wasn’t a tent, and as this wasn’t a massive salmon run, there were no lines strung across the creek with further lines dangling from them into the water. There was, however, a campfire for a cozy warmth crackling merrily between the two, and packs containing lunch and dinner in case the fish weren’t biting today.
Dordy enjoyed himself too, sniffing around the beloved, familiar Grizzly Hills campsite, following the frogs around and yip-yipping if they took a particularly large bound, and barking his head off anytime Celeste, Rugnar, or Nat caught anything.
As it turned out, there were a few good bites, and Celeste and Nat, for once, tied in their usual game of who could draw out the bigger fish. As their packs contained food that could be out in this chill and be taken back home again to put back in the icebox Nat kept enchanted for food preservation, fish from cold, fresh waters was back on the menu! With a pair of evenly-sized catfish and one largemouth bass that was nearly as big as the others (Rugnar’s other catch; the slightly smaller fish had turned out to put up the most exhilarating fight of the bunch, nearly getting free a few times before Rugnar got it out of the water), the little family enjoyed themselves a fine lunch, with even Dordy getting full.
Dinner consisted of several crappies Celeste found lurking in some reeds. An ambush predator, these fish lurk in shallow water, in brush piles and other such hiding places under the water to catch their prey. Celeste found the ambushers, though, and the school of fish provided several tasty, flaky fillets to fry up for dinner.
Dinner was a happy affair, with fish, brews purchased from a quick stop at the local Amberpine Lodge, and plenty of funny old stories told after the sun set early, as it did at this latitude. With a clear sky full of stars, crisp, chilly, clean mountain air, the fragrance of mountain earth and redwood and fried, seasoned fish, and a warm, cozy campfire next to a creek, Nat couldn’t think of a better way to end her minication!
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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Jun 29, 2023 10:13:15 GMT
June the Twenty-Ninth The noisiest bit of tinkering in quite some time was going on in the workshop/hangar sublevel of the House-On-The-Spire. If you put three gnomes, a dwarf, a draenei with millennia of engineering experience, a creatively ingenious human, and what basically amounts to her human apprentice in a workshop together, it fills the room with clinking and clanging, ticking and tapping, riveting and ratcheting, welding and whacking (and no shortage of Keep-Away with needed tools being played by the mischievous Dordy!). The focus this time was on a chassis dangling from chains in the center of the workshop, a spherical little chassis only a few feet in diameter with the skeleton of legs coming out of the side like a spider. Wires ran from parts and gizmos and doodads all over the interior of the chassis sphere, where the top half was closed off from the bottom half with an almost bowl-like metal plate with a chair bolted onto it, and what was beginning to look like an instrument panel in front of that. The parts and wires were all in the bottom half, some dangling loose, some connected. More wires ran to the joins of the legs and down the length of the metal skeleton spider legs, as well as one stout hose in each that looked to be running from an air compressor.
Surrounding the crew were tools and parts innumerable. There were pliers and screwdrivers, coils of wire and stacks of circuit boards, hunks of twisted metal and pipes and gadgets lying around everywhere. The industrious crew visited this or that pile frequently, and the chassis was beginning to look slightly like a vehicle!
The current conundrum the crew faced, while gathered in the light of the mechanical fishtank and hanging lanterns, was how to fit a display screen (as the sphere would be completely enclosed with no way to manually view the outside of it) on the instrument panel while still having enough controls and instruments to work with. The problem was proving tough even for the most skilled among them, and was certainly out of Nat’s level of experience.
So, to keep out of the way while engineering beyond her understanding was going on, Nat was currently seated at her spot on the workbench, her diary open in front of her. She thought a bit more on the problem, wishing she had learned engineering long ago instead of only in the last couple of years, then turned to her diary. She wouldn’t have much to put in this week, but there was still a bit she could do!
Dear diary,
It’s been another boring week outside of Pandaria, though things around home have been anything but! Aside from the recurring dream still happening a few times a week, there’s still the new big PE.B.B.LE. project for us to work on! PEnny’s Blaster Ball and Legs is in full swing!
We’ve got the chassis put together! The spherical skeleton and its spider legs skeleton is now loaded with parts. We had a blacksmithing pandaren come down to help us that we once met in Binan Village that we sometimes see when we eat at the inn there. He agreed to forge for us the outer plates for the sphere, and he’s already completed the underside of the cockpit, so now the top half of the chassis is separated from the bottom half by a sort of uneven bowl that we bolted a chair onto that the Cogswitch twins looted in Mechagnome (though only after insisting that she try every single seat in every single junked vehicle in the entire Mechagnome junkyard to find one the one she thinks is most comfortable. Gosh, they’ve got it bad! Hehe.). The underside of that is loaded with parts and doodads and wires of all kinds. Our blacksmithing pandaren friend got the plates for the outside of the sphere and the legs finished too, and they’re in a messy pile on the floor, of course, as seems to be the engineering way. HA!
The cryo-cannon is over here lying on the workbench. It ended up receiving its own extensive modification. Penny came up with the idea to reforged the muzzle into separate pieces so that it can extend and retract like a telescope. She’s so smart! Now she can bring it in to get through tight spots without getting it snagged, and extend it out into a firing position! We can load it right into a tube going overhead of Penny’s seat inside the sphere, and it can extend out in an instant when needed!
The current problem we’re facing is the control panel. It needs instruments, controls for everything, AND a view screen for the gnomish camera we’re going to install outside of the sphere so there’s a way to see where the pilot (Penny) is going, but the problem is, inside a sphere that small, there simply isn’t enough room to put everything! So now they’re all over there talking about stuff like “miniaturization” and whatnot, which I’ve heard of gnomes doing, shrinking or growing things, but I’m not sure that’s the answer – we could just build it all smaller to begin with!
OH! I have an idea… instead of putting the viewscreen for the camera on the control panel… how about we install it higher up? Maybe something dead ahead, so Penny can comfortably look straight instead of down all the time. Once she gets the hang of the controls, I’m sure she could use them without looking, and can just face the screen! Gosh… I’m gonna go tell them my idea! Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t?
Goodness gracious, I wish I had more to write about. I really do. But heck, I sure am excited to see Penny put the PEBBLE through its paces! We should have it finished sometime in the coming week! I can’t wait to see it in action, and I especially can’t wait to see Penny work her magic down in that cavern with the quilen or whatever creatures are down there! We should be good to go soon! YAY!
Nat grinned with excitement, ready to propose her idea to the group. She snapped her diary shut, poked her mechanical pen back into its slot in the mechanical inkwell, and took her things upstairs to her office to put where they go. Returning with the entire coffee pot for everyone, she explained her thoughts on the viewscreen, which went over a storm! Celeste said Nat was more of an engineer than she gave herself credit for, sending Nat into a blushing fit. The older, wiser Rugnar and Shalyra the Draenei agreed that sometimes the best solution was a simple one like Nat’s, and that they’d been overthinking the control panel itself. Nat might not have nearly as much engineering experience as the others, but it turns out she still had a little to contribute!
Work proceeded on the wiring up of the control panel, and a light frame was installed over that on which the view screen could be mounted. Work continued right through lunch, with Celeste sending her drone to Anglers Wharf for plates of fish tacos that everyone thoroughly enjoyed. The control panel was really beginning to shape up by the time everyone agreed to call it quits for the day, and a dinner party on Turtle Beach was called for!
Dinner on Turtle Beach was set up next to a bonfire, with swimming, lounging, and chatting drawing pandaren in from across Turtle Bay at Anglers Wharf. Soon Celeste was telling tales of acquiring parts for the PEBBLE that may or may not have entailed flying the MUTT through perilous skies over Mechagon Isle to dodge flying death machines, flak cannon fire from the ground, and an especially ornery pelican (Nat knew the pelican part was unembellished, if nothing else, listening with a grin and a giggle).
Dordy visited every single person there, pandaren or otherwise, and had so many morsels given to him (on top of his own dinner) that he was no longer running and had to waddle everywhere he went. He ended up snoozing the rest of the evening away, curled up into a ball at the feet of Liu Lang’s turtle-riding statue, happily dreaming of Dordy things, twitching and yipping in his sleep as he gave chase to things only he could see.
At last, the party drew to an end; the minication was over. Nat, feeling particularly full herself from the delicious tuna salad, deviled eggs, and fresh bread that had been brought over, finally released Celeste’s hand where they were lounging on a beach towel and waved Onyx down from the skies. The great netherdrake blocked out many stars as he swooped down, and Nat mounted up, sitting side-saddle as usual. Waving farewell to all her friends on the beach, she zoomed up to the House-On-The-Spire, enjoying a warm bath and then heading to bed.
How would Penny do in the PEBBLE? What was REALLY in those cave ruins, lurking? What would happen when her recurring dream finally drove her to gather her friends and go to the dark place she dreamed of? Would Celeste find a permanent place among the Explorer’s League’s ranks and win the last holdouts like Bulbous over? She couldn’t wait to find out!
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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Jul 6, 2023 15:02:23 GMT
July the Sixth The first hints of the morning’s sunrise were lighting up the fog around the House-On-The-Spire. The midnight purple had gently eased into one of a dark blue that allowed visibility a couple dozen feet or so into the morning mists, though little was actually seen beyond the little yard around the wrap-around veranda atop the towering rock spire. Distant, indistinct voices came through the open windows if one stopped to be quiet and listen, though the conversations being had down at Anglers Wharf did not quite carry to this altitude well enough to be recognizable. Distant gentle waves were the only other sound. The house had a lingering scent of bacon and sausage mixed with the aroma of coffee from the morning’s breakfast. It was a peaceful, quiet morning at home.[/div]
Dordy and Celeste were downstairs in the second sub-level, Celeste checking over the herbs and tending to their needs, Dordy following around the only one of the two that was currently moving around and doing something remotely interesting to him.
In Nat’s office, the morning’s mists and breeze brought shielding from the warm season. It was a welcome change from the heat they’d been enduring of late. A cool breeze came through the screen of the window and the screen sliding door beyond the open sliding glass one on the east wall of the office. The not-quite-risen sun and the dark, steely blue mists cast an equally dark, steely blue light on the office, and, for someone with the night vision of a person raised in Darkshire, that was plenty of light to write with.
And write she did, her diary open before her, her coffee and mechanical inkwell near to hand, and a quiet, restful morning allowing her to take her time and put mechanical pen to blank page.
Dear diary,
It’s been another eventless week outside Pandaria, but on Pandaria, we’re making some seriously great strides! The PE.B.B.LE. was completed over the weekend while I was at work, it got painted to Penny’s specification in gold trim like Mechagon spider tanks over Monday and Tuesday, and yesterday, we got to watch Penny test it out while Celeste gave Penny things to do in it!
Uncle Rugnar, Penny, the Cogswitch twins, and Shalyra the draenei all came back to the House-On-The-Spire to help finish the PEBBLE. I’d given Celeste some lunch ideas which were used and the hook drone made its way to Anglers Wharf, Halfhill, and the Jade Forest.
Finally the PEBBLE was airlifted by the Flying Nosebleed to Turtle Beach for a test run. Everyone from the dig site returned early on Tuesday morning to see the new machine that stood the best chance of seeing the dig resume.
The Cogswitch twins were monitoring the PEBBLE’s signal and performances from a table set up around the statue. Shalyra was there also, calibrating the machine remotely.
Rugnar, Celeste and I were with Penny next to the PEBBLE.
The Pandarens from the digsite team, among others from Anglers Wharf, had chosen to watch from sidelines, under the comfortable shade of the jungle trees lining the beach.
The rest of the dwarves on the team (except for Golbert, who was still in Ironforge) stood to the side in the beach, looking both intrigued and somewhat agitated.
“Okay, Penny,” Celeste was saying. “The Pebble is yours. Put it through its paces and let’s see what it can do. Shalyra and I rigged a rearview projection in the goggles I made for you when you piloted the Penny Pincher. One of the lenses will give you a grainy image of what’s behind you. Not the best image, but undoubtedly valuable in a tight corridor.”
Celeste handed the goggles to Penny, knelt down to give her a hug and stepped back.
“I’ll monitor the PEBBLE with our friends near the statue. The beach is yours!”
Dordy was watching from the Wave Dancer, meanwhile, just off the beach. The danger of him getting excited and underfoot was too much to let him loose on the beach.
"Rearview goggles, eh?" Penny replied, impressed. "Great Bonzo's brass buttons, what a splendid idea! Thank you, Celeste!"
"Have fun, Penny!" I said. "Let 'er rip!"
Penny smiled and nodded to her friends as the others and I backed away.
"Hmm..." she hummed thoughtfully. "Let's see here... ignition! And then... close dome..."
Penny disappeared as the dome closed over top of the PEBBLE with a hiss of air pressurization. Her voice immediately was heard over the comms.
"Dark in here... can't see th-..."
Penny felt around for the dome top release, opening it up.
"WHEW! Blessed sunlight! Cogs and sprockets, let's turn on the control panel and viewscreen first for some lights..."
Penny disappeared under the dome once more.
"Alright, that's better... viewscreen image... clear... rear-view goggles... on... Uh oh, where did we install the suction cup initiators again? I don't want to suck up too much sand, here... Ah! That's right, right over here... Hmm... cryo-gun, better avoid that one for now... Okay! Move it, legs! This should-- WHOOOOOAAAAA! WHEEEEE!"
The PEBBLE suddenly just TOOK OFF! Dordy bounced around the Wave Dancer, barking himself silly as the PEBBLE went careening around the beach. Bystanders dived for cover for the first few seconds of it as the PEBBLE changed directions rapidly.
"Sorry! Sorry! Trying to get acclimated here! These controls are SO responsive!"
Within seconds, however, the PEBBLE seemed to be much more under control, and Penny took a far more controlled run around the beach. Soon, she approached a rather large tree on the treeline.
"Alright... suction cups, front legs... hmm... yeah, initiate! Now... back legs!"
The PEBBLE reared up on the tree, the ends of the front legs pulling the PEBBLE up the trunk. The rear legs attached next, and soon, the PEBBLE was scrambling all over the tree, even going upside down on a thick limb and scrambling halfway out! WOW!
"HA!" exulted Penny. "This is amazing!"
“Penny you’re handling the PEBBLE like a champ. I’d like you to try to make a few tight right turns; the twins think the servos on the right legs aren’t as synchronized as they should. It looks like a very, very small time delay, but they insist, so…”
Celeste stopped speaking for a moment and she came back on the comm.
“Shalyra wants to run a test on the view screen, she thinks adding a brightness control will prevent you from being blinded by sudden changes in lighting. She’ll start fiddling with the brightness on her end; let us know if it gets too dark or too bright.”
On cue, the image in the viewscreen dimmed slightly, lowering the bright glare of the sun. It continued dimming, though not enough to limit visibility, then slowly crept up until some finer details were lost by the brightness. After a moment, it dimmed down again to a comfortable level.
“That’s the breadth of the brightness control Shalyra plans on giving you. How was it?”
"Right!"
Penny quit playing around in the tree and took the PEBBLE back to the beach, piloting to a spot free of people and then running a figure eight in the sand, giving the twins a good left and both right and left turns, making them equally tight each time, so that the Cogswitch brothers could get a good luck at the difference between synchronicity between the legs on either sort of turn. When Celeste came back on the comms again, Penny slowed down to a stop for a moment.
"Huh..." came her tiny, squeaky voice over the comms. "That image is fantastic, negating the sun's glare like this. Oop-- there's an increase of brightness here that blurs the crispness of the finer details onscreen... Ah, there, THERE! That level is perfect! Nice and crisp, not too dark, not too bright. Excellent!"
“Alright Penny, that’s great. Shalyra is done calibrating the controls, and I think I can add the brightness control to-“
Penny heard other voices in the comms then Celeste spoke again, her tone amused.
“The twins wanted to tell you that the second leg on the right has a servo that’s off by one eighth of a second, and want to assure you that they will correct it. For your safety… and your comfort… and your… what? No I’m not saying that…
“Sorry, anyways, the test is mostly done on our end, except for the cryo cannon discharge. Go ahead and test anything else you’d like then we’ll try out the cannon. I’ll create a hot fire for you to target when you’re ready.”
"O-okay... Well, uhh... r-right, then..." I could practically hear Penny blush over the comms, which caused me to blush myself, especially having heard what the twins had said. "Uhh... d-do thank the boys for me, won't you? I’ve already tested the spiderwalking suction cup system, and we’ve tested the goggles and viewscreen now. Controls feel great! I don’t think there’s anything else besides the cannon, off the top of my head, that I can think of to test. And as for the cannon... Preparing cryo-cannon now!"
The PEBBLE's little rotating dome that protruded from the top front of the sphere opened a small sliding door upward, and, as though a telescope were being extended, three sections of fifty-millimeter cannon emerged.
"Muzzle extended... cryo-cells charged... payload prepared. Ready to fire!"
Celeste strode around the table and faced the beach. “Everyone stay back!” she shouted, then concentrated and created a small bird made of fire from thin air. I knew Celeste would know that I remembered Celeste created and used that bird to strengthen her concentration with her fire magic, when she still avidly used it.
Effortlessly now, she made the bird fly around the PEBBLE, in an erratic pattern, giving Penny a moving target to practice on.
“Here’s your target, Penny. We’ll test different target speeds and ranges. Fire when you have acquired the target.”
I did indeed recognize the little firebird, smiling a little as I remembered Celeste's beautiful little incendiary aviary, yet the smile dwindled when I remembered who else was associated with it. My smile returned when she put that thought from her mind, knowing ancient history is ancient history, grudges are dumb, and forgiveness is divine, so I watched Celeste, just being proud of Celeste for still having this level of special touch to fire magic.
"Roger!" Penny's voice was squeaking from the comms meanwhile. "Calculating angles... Oop, it turned-- a-and turned again... this... this will be difficult, Celeste. There is no mathematical pattern to its flight, and I cannot extrapolate a trajectory for a blast with any certainty whatsoever... I'll just have to... FIRE!"
FWWWOOOOOOSH!
A blast of cryo-spray whooshed out of the cannon, causing the crowd to gasp, though it missed the little phoenix by a wide margin. Penny fired again, and then once more, before desisting, unable to hit the erratically darting bird.
"Alright," Penny's voice came again. "This will take a bit more creative thinking. Ideas?"
“Penny, this isn’t any different from shooting a rifle at a moving target. Clear your mind, go with your gut, don’t hesitate, and shoot,” Celeste said into the comms.
“Shalyra says she can put thermal targeting in the controls, but we don’t even know if the monster in the tunnels is any hotter than the rest of the stone around it. Trust your instincts and you’ll hit your target. You have awesome reflexes. This isn’t any different than dodging random pirate cannon fire. Well, except you’re the cannon this time…”
I could practically hear Penny frowning at that! I watched as the cannon followed the firebird around, darting this way and that, often leading it only to lose it to another erratic turn. There was an irritated huff only just barely audible over the comms, followed by a long pause.
In the PEBBLE, Penny resigned herself, she told us later, to the fact that Celeste spoke truly. No mathematical calculations were going to help her this time. Even as she thought about thermal targeting, motion-sensing targeting, and any number of other ideas, she pursed her lips, waited for the bird to turn again, and then immediately whipped the cannon that direction and FIRED!
FWWWOOOOOOSH!
HIT!
The spray enveloped the firebird fully, cooling it so immediately that the fire was put out on the spot! Cheers erupted from all around her, audible over the comms and even through the sphere of the PEBBLE. Feeling slightly annoyed that mathematics had failed her, she nonetheless felt proud of herself for having made the shot. It was with an ambivalent expression on her face, therefore, that she walked the PEBBLE over to Celeste and opened the dome, blinking away the sudden bright sunlight.
"We have mission success, chief!"
“We sure do, Penny! I hadn’t a single doubt about your success,” Celeste smiled but then turned more serious and created another fire bird.
“I flew that bird in relative circles around you. You need to be able to hit targets from farther away, coming behind or over you. You’re a natural and I have faith in you – and the talent of our engineering friends. The PEBBLE is solid, and perfect for the job, but I’m also responsible for your safety. As leader of the dig, but mostly as your friend.
“SO! Get back in there and we’ll put you through a few more tests. Once I’m satisfied you’ll be ready, we’ll call it quits.
“Then we’re all going fishing and swimming in the Bay! Uncle Rugnar went hunting for us. We’ll have another beach roast to celebrate!”
Celeste shouted out the last, receiving cheers from the people around the beach and more distant ones from the people at the Wharf who were watching the proceedings and ever ready to join in the fun.
Celeste controlled her fire birds, sometimes creating two or three at a time. The birds flew far, close, underneath, behind and just over the PEBBLE. The test eventually involved destroying the birds before they hit the PEBBLE, testing Penny’s timing to prevent sudden attacks. Celeste was quick with praise, but relentless in her tests.
It was plain that Penny was quite outside of her comfort zone now. The firebirds bombarded the PEBBLE incessantly, and Penny's annoyed huffs could be heard from time to time over the comms. I felt slightly bad for her, yet I knew that Penny building up a facet of her mind that needed building up would be good for her.
So, when Penny finally got another bird by way of side-stepping the PEBBLE out of the path of a divebombing firebird, swung the entire PEBBLE around, and nailed it in the back with her cryo-cannon, I felt great pride for her little friend as I cheered with the others! Penny got two more within the next few minutes, and even managed to cleverly knock one of them to the ground and stamp a PEBBLE foot right through it, scattering the flames on the wind as they dissipated.
From there, Penny began to gain some confidence, and her shouts of glee replaced her annoyed huffs as she maneuvered the PEBBLE deftly and blasted bird after bird, finally getting the hang of instinctive combat and putting logic and reason aside.. She was beginning to get quite good already!
An equally proud Celeste finally declared the test over. By now, the beach was a chaotic mess of torn-up sand, but the crabs and turtles didn’t seem to mind so much.
“Good job Penny!” Celeste praised her little friend. “Whatever’s in those tunnels doesn’t stand a chance! Uncle Rugnar said he’s on his way back from a successful hunt and he’s airlifting a few kegs of ale from the brewery, too. I’ll return the PEBBLE to the workshop for maintenance. Anyone who wants to ride the Wave Dancer for some fishing, hop aboard. Remember to go see Nat if you’d like a spell to breathe water if diving the Trench is more your thing!”
The crew gathered the equipment from around the statue, clearing the beach. Celeste gave me a kiss and blinked into the FB to get everything airlifted back to the House-On-The-Spire, crossing her uncle Rugnar on her way up as he was making his descent.
The Stoutgardens were more than happy to take care of the spit roast as well as any fish that was caught.
When she returned, Celeste wore a sky blue bikini decorated with silver cranes. She had brought the FISH, as Shalyra had expressed a desire to try it out. The draenei was left to test the device mostly on her own, accompanied by an over-eager Dordy in his bubble.
Celeste captained her fishing boat, bringing those who wanted to fish to spots she knew were good ones. She didn’t fish much herself, content to help those new to the sport to get the hang of it and certainly happy to make sure I had everything I needed, in her personal chair on the boat. She’s always being so sweet to me!
Penny wasn't quite used to being the center of attention. A castoff on her own home island, the attention the Cogswitch twins lavished upon her was overwhelming enough. Now she was the subject (at least in part) of an entire beach celebration! She took it in stride as best she could, partying and answering questions and telling the story from her personal view (full of technical explanations rather than a Celeste-style embellishment, getting the story exactly right, down to the last detail, mechagnome style). The pandaren and other anglers seemed a bit lost when Penny went on about the engineering side of it, but still pressed her for details as she went along, loving the story itself.
Bulbous Bulchor and his aide were the only ones who didn't looked pleased, looking surly and leaving before the party started, the aide nodding as the senior muttered darkly.
I was surprised when Dordy took off running when he was finally allowed on the beach off the Wave Dancer, as he'd gotten so excited when Penny had been running those figure-eights earlier that he'd been running them at the same speed, in the same pattern, yip-yip-yipping all the while, on the boat without tiring. Now here he was on the beach, as though he hadn't done that for so long at all, running around playing Keep-Away with different partygoers and the dig crew and getting his usual belly full of treats from everyone, and soon getting into his Dordy Bubble to go diving with his great new friend Shalyra in the FISH, chasing the things that swam around the towering Draenei as the alien woman marveled at the engineering of the two devices delving the depths of the waters here.
Then back on the boat he went when Shalyra was done, fishing with Celeste as she led new anglers onto the water, "helping" them reel in fish sometimes by dragging the back of a pants leg or boot, always careful not to harm clothing or people.
I was feeling tired myself, after all that, even though all I'd done was get myself all excited as Penny acclimated herself to the PEBBLE and its weapon. I was content to sit in my purple chair on the Wave Dancer, always blushing awkwardly at all the attention and spoiling Celeste lavished upon me. I’m so lucky to have ended up with her! It had certainly been a great day for nearly everyone!
Outside of that, there’s a little talk about getting Deathrolls started back up among my Stormwind friends again. I’m excited to get back to hanging out with them in earnest! Hopefully that, and the adventure concerning my still-recurring dream, can get going soon!
It’s been such a happy, mostly relaxing, partly exciting week, and Celeste says today we’ll take a break from all the PEBBLE work and have a nice, relaxing day together! This is gonna be so awesome, a well-deserved break and a fun, relaxing day at home! WOO! Though I also can’t wait to finally get back to the digsite and see what we can do about the creature that got the drone down there! I can’t wait to finally deal with this recurring dream, and maybe get back to Deathrolls again! Life is really looking up lately! YAY!
Nat breathed a heavy, happy sigh at those thoughts, then poked her mechanical pen back into the inkwell and snapped her diary shut, putting things back where they go and exiting the office. Along the west wall of the vault-ceiling front room she went, through a door, down two floors of a wrought-iron spiral staircase, and out into the earthy-smelling nursery where Celeste and Dordy were still making the rounds. Nat gave Celeste a kiss and took her coffee mug upstairs for a hot, fresh top-off, then returned down the stairs and helped her finish up.
With the herbs freshly watered and tended, the two headed out while the morning mists still hung heavy, taking advantage of some fishing while the fish were still biting, floating around the surface for the morning tropical bugs. Celeste had opted for the nice, cool iceberg for not only the relief from the season’s warmth at this time of year, but also for a bit of nostalgia, as the two spent their first few months of acquaintance doing exactly this fairly often.
When the sun finally burned through the mists, several small- and medium-sized fish lay in a row on the iceberg, which Celeste directed out of the sun, into the shade of Anglers Wharf while the sun was still on the other side of the spire. Other Nat helped them prep the fish for a light lunch, and Shen and Marzai, the two pandaren anglers that had helped Celeste and Nat build their house, were spotted and invited over to lunch.
Between Other Nat and Celeste, the fish was prepared to each person’s order, and lunch was enjoyed on Other Nat’s little rowboat, tied off to the dock, just enjoying the gentle waves of Turtle Bay.
After lunch, Celeste invited everyone to transfer to the Wave Dancer, and the five friends, along with a waddling Dordy (his belly was quite full from his lunch plus tidbits and morsels fed to him by everyone else), piled into the engineered motorboat. Uncle Rugnar and Penny were tracked down and invited along, and now a full boat, with coolers full of snacks and drinks, was piloting along the waves, heading due east.
The boat party passed by the end of the Krasarang Wilds, coming now to the lush, vibrant Jade Forest. Northward Celeste steered the boat, heading upriver into cooler, calmer fresh water. Passing Moonwater Retreat on the right, turning northwest with the river and reaching Pearlfin Village in the center of Pearl Lake in short order. Not wanting to disturb the sacred waters of the Jinyu too much, Celeste slowed the boat down to a quiet purr, skirting the shore to give the village a wide berth before reentering the river at the northwest corner and pushing against the corner a bit before slowly, gradually increasing engine power to reliably build up some speed northward.
Eventually, they reached the spot where they’d first found the jade monkey statue in the chest that had caused so much trouble early in the year. Everyone wanted the story again at that point, and Celeste regaled them all with a story that had Nat stifling a giggle, Other Nat smirking slightly, and Uncle Rugnar winking at Celeste. The story involved Nat diving through underwater plants that the jade monkey’s bad luck caused to wrap around her ankles and wrists and pull her down, then through a squad of diving hozen with frog spears that had to be frightened off with loud revving of the Wave Dancer’s engines, and finally a giant carp that had nearly swallowed Nat before Dordy dived in to fight it, causing so much steam in the water that the carp couldn’t see Nat anymore, and Nat and Dordy were able to escape back to the safety of the boat with the statue’s chest in hand.
The party helped themselves to snacks and drinks from the coolers throughout Celeste’s story as they bobbed on the now-historic site, and then the boat headed onward, plowing relentlessly further upstream. Through an army of weeping willows they plowed, the beautiful trees drooping their wispy branches low enough sometimes to make a curtain that had to be brushed aside to get up the river. The trees were not so thick, however, as to miss seeing Nectarbreeze Orchard on the left side and up the hill a bit, the trees in full flower, adding still more beauty to an already beautiful land.
Past Fox Grove they motored next, to Serpent’s Heart, where the grand statue of Yu’lon, the Jade Serpent, rose above a clearing of land, bringing inspiring hope and peace and calm to all those in the boat who beheld it, and even Dordy sat down and quietly stared up at the pandaren landmark. Passing that, motoring under ornate pandaren arch bridges, the massive Temple of the Jade Serpent dominated the horizon on the right, the beautiful, equally ornate edifice to Yu’lon inspiring even more peace and calm on the boat, and the party sat and relaxed and heaved contented sighs.
The land rose beyond that, and with it came the little waterfalls. Nat new from prior exploration with both Celeste and the Whitewind Company that there would be many of these in quick succession as the river turned to rise up into the mountains from whence it poured forth, and the party decided to stop here, in the shade of the weeping willows with the statue and the temple for scenery, exchanging stories around the group as they broke out the fishing tackle.
The sun soared across the sky as welcome company, great fishing, and funny or exciting stories were shared. Other Nat told of distant lands and their fishing, sometimes with a non-fish-related but still very exciting adventure involved in getting to or from these places. Shen and Marzai told fish tales and tales of pandaren myth and legend that held the group in thrall. Penny told tales of mechanical wonders from Mechagon Isle in addition to farming tales from Halfhill that involved adventure and excitement as often as it did relaxation, and her precision details only helped her storytelling, with everyone listening closely. Celeste and Nat had stories to tell from their own lives that held the rapt attention of the others that, as with everyone else’s stories, was only ever broken by the sudden splash of a bobber in the water on a fishing line. Dordy wandered around for petting and snacks in between snoozing on the deck.
The sun neared the horizon and the skies began to grow dark. Enough fish was caught for everyone’s dinner, and spices and cooking materials were brought out for a second meal of fish for the day, this time of the freshwater variety, and a meal was cooked on the east bank of the river, enjoyed under the statue of Yu’lon.
As the sky darkened, everyone piled back into the Wave Dancer to head home. The scenery was now even more beautiful, with the setting sun casting orange rays over everything, and, by the time the river emptied out into the sea, the sun was gone, and stars innumerable helped the waning moon light the gently rolling waves, and Celeste piloted the party back to Anglers Wharf.
Unloading at the docks, everyone lingered a moment, saying their goodnights and thanking Celeste for the excellent, relaxing day on her boat, before heading back to their own homes. Nat headed up with Celeste to the House-On-The-Spire for a bath and bed. It had been a really great day to cap off a really great week, and she went to bed dreaming of the adventures she knew were sure to come next!
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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Jul 13, 2023 12:12:08 GMT
July the Thirteenth It had been a while since any diary-writing had gotten done outside the House-On-The-Spire, but this morning, Nat sat down amidst a group of people sitting and waiting, and she preferred to do her waiting while writing. Dordy preferred to do his waiting curled up into a ball and snoozing at her feet where she sat at the opposite end of the table from the MUTT, as she wasn’t constantly getting up to check gauges and dials on something inside the MUTT like the others were, so it was safer down on this end.
The rest of the engineering team – Celeste, Uncle Rugnar, Penny, the Cogswitch twins, and Shalyra – were all sitting around the MUTT, making small talk in the cool of the thick, heavy morning mist that brought with it the smell of the earthy jungle. A low rumbling came from the MUTT, which sat with its torso compartment open and a pair of hoses leading out from a large tank within and were extended deep into the tunnel that had previously been sealed to keep the creature that had knocked out their drone sealed inside. The only other sounds, besides the other dwarves’ chatter, was the wind in the trees, the calls of morning tropical birds, and the occasional yowling of a jungle cat somewhere in the distance. The smell of coffee mingled pleasantly with the earthy jungle smell, and the sun was gone, so all in all, it was a pleasant enough morning.
Nat looked up as she pulled out her diary and opened it to the nearest blank page. Shalyra was up this time, relaying some readings on the dials inside the MUTT to Celeste, who nodded and got up, the other engineers following her. Celeste turned off the rumbling device and closed a valve. Shalyra, with her height and strength, was able to easily reach in and remove the tank after disconnecting the hoses, set it aside, and put a new tank in. After reattaching the hoses, Celeste turned the machine back on, and the group sat down to wait and chat again, with Celeste topping off Nat’s coffee before sitting back down next to her. Nat smiled at Celeste in thanks, took a sip, then poked the button that popped the mechanical pen out of her mechanical inkwell. Applying pen tip to blank page, she began to write.
Dear diary,
It’s been a pretty cool week! We’ve done some adventuring this time! Well, on Pandaria, at least. The others back in the Eastern Kingdoms have still been too busy to do things and stuff, so the recurring dream continues, but back on Pandaria, things have been adventurous enough!
Celeste had told me about her mountain hunt with the villagers of Binan Village when I returned home from my final day of the workend. The locals thought her crazy for going up there without any winter gear, but once on the mountain, some of the hunters were glad to stand close to her and enjoy some of the warmth she gave off with her fire magic!
Dordy was becoming a better hunting dog, keeping his barking to a bare minimum. Unfortunately, if he stands too long in one place, the snow beneath him melts and turns into a slow column of steam! HA!
Still, the hunt was successful, and I got a chance to try some goat roast for dinner! That was yummy!
The following day, Celeste was up very early. The PEBBLE was airlifted to the dig site, and everyone involved with the dig was there, even Golbert, my happy dwarven helper who’d been away at Ironforge while the digsite was closed. Good old Golbert!
The plan was relatively simple: the MUTT (piloted by Celeste) would reopen the collapsed corridor, arm-gun ready in case the monster was waiting at the entrance. Once the tunnel was cleared, Penny and the PEBBLE would infiltrate the tunnel to hunt and hopefully freeze the suspected quilen lurking in there. Easy peasy!
Celeste would remain on guard in the MUTT, using the MAD mode’s lethal functions in case the monster somehow got past Penny.
The engineering team (Shalyra and the Cogswitch twins, would monitor the PEBBLE and assist if required.
Uncle Rugnar and I were a last line of defense, in case the quilen proved faster or more resilient than expected. With my magic and summoning and Rugnar’s big blunderbuss, we’d be ready for it!
Both flying machines, both dragons, and even Nosebleed were hitched and ready to evacuate everyone if things turned REALLY sour!
Suyin was ready to assist in case of medical emergencies, though for the moment she helped the Stoutgardens unpack the camp’s provisions and prepare a lunch for everyone. She’s such a great cook!
“In position,” Celeste said in her comms, her voice echoing a bit because the MUTT now had it’s protective dome (so now in ARMUTT configuration). “Ready check everyone…” She added as she ordered everyone to signal they were also ready
The engineers replied right away, saying their systems were nominal. One of the twins wanted to double check something inside the PEBBLE’s cockpit but Shalyra was heard telling him, “Not now!”
The Pandarens didn’t have comms so Rugnar relayed that they were ok. He wished both Celeste and Penny good luck as he nodded gravely to me, telling his partner for the defense line that he was all set as he primed a huge blunderbuss.
I nodded back at Rugnar as I raised my gnomish communicator to my mouth.
"Ready here, My Catch!"
"Ready PEBBLE!" Penny's voice squeaked over the comms, echoing slightly, like Celeste's, inside the cockpit of the PEBBLE. "I sure hope whatever the twins want to check in here isn't critical... But yeah, let's DO THIS!"
Penny checked forward and reverse screens and readied herself behind Celeste...
Shalyra spoke on the comms with her accent typical of draenei.
“It is nothing, Penny. Ze little ones vanted to change ze colors of ze dashboard to better complement your eyes. Ze PEBBLE is vorking within acceptable parameters.”
Celeste couldn’t help laughing as she replied
“Alright, let’s focus on the important stuff guys. I like Penny’s eyes too, but let’s not get carried away.
“Commencing drilling. MAD mode initiated. PENNY, I’m reading your transponder clearly. The MAD mode is noting you as friendly.”
“Oh, THAT’S a relief!” came the squeaky little reply over the comms. Through her camera, Penny saw the left drill arm of the ARMUTT move to position. The rotating discs at the end starting to spin. Meanwhile the gun arm was at the ready and the launcher on the right shoulder swiveled as the MAD mode’s proximity detectors swept the area surrounding the machine.
A cloud of dust and debris quickly formed around the drill arm as Celeste opened the passage.
Penny chuckled as the dust cloud rose, blushing and – glad the others couldn't see it – she later revealed to Celeste and I that she was secretly looking at the edge of the viewscreen to see her faint reflection in the frame, trying to see her eyes. She had no idea what to do with such adoration!
The rest of the story, we got from Penny afterward: Returning her focus to the task at hand, she made herself grow serious again. The dust settled... Penny darted left in the PEBBLE, cryo-cannon aimed right down the tunnel, just in case something was there.
"FORRRRR PANDARIAAAAAAAAAA!" she cried, checking ahead. What was in there?!
Celeste made a salute with the drill arm as the PEBBLE trundled past. "Good luck, Penny! I'll be right here if you need me!''
Penny moved the front-right leg of the PEBBLE up in a return salute, then scrambled up the left wall, hanging upside-down to move into the tunnel via the overhead gap between the MUTT and the ceiling. Granted, Celeste moving aside also left a gap, but Penny was having FUN!
In front of Penny, the tunnel grew considerably darker as it wound deeper into the ground. The tunnel itself was relatively unchanged from the map the drone had managed to capture before its untimely demise, despite the artificial cave-in used to seal the passage. Penny spotted no movement in front as she reached the corpses of the long dead pandaren slaves. The corridor finally opened up wider. Just ahead in the PEBBLE's headlights, she could see the destroyed drone lying on the cavern floor. Around her, jade deposits rose up, wide veins that sparkled green when the lights moved over them. There was still no movement, though several passages opened up from this chamber.
Flicking the headlights on as she skittered into the tunnel, she wound down the corridor, spying wisps of the gas on the viewscreen. When she got far enough down to see the first old skeletons, she slowed up a bit, peering carefully ahead, watching for any sudden movement.
When she got into the room, her headlights flashed brilliantly off the jade veins ahead. Stopping to gasp and marvel at the room, she caught herself after a moment and concentrated on peering about through the gas and gloom for any hint of a creature, cryo-cannon activated.
Spying the additional corridors, she spoke up through her comms again.
"Reached the jade room, no immediate sign of creature. Several more passages depart from this room. I had not anticipated this. Awaiting instructions!"
“Ve are mapping the tunnel as you go, Penny,” Shalyra said on the comms. “Choose one of the three tunnels and ve vill follow your progress.”
“Watch you six, Penny,” Celeste replied. “Branching tunnels will make you exposed to attacks from the rear.
“Everyone on defense, stay alert. Danger could move beyond Penny once she’s in a tunnel and get to us without her knowing!”
"Roger, copy, and check, chief!" Penny squeaked over the comms. "I'll sweep left to right. Entering left now. Cryo-cannon active and extended. Increasing power 11.1279%. Sure is a lot of gas in here. Switching to high-beams on the headlights. GAH! That gas and jade BOTH reflect a lot of... there we go, low beams again. More skeletons and broken mogu bodies here, Explorer Base. No sign of movement at this time..."
Meanwhile, back at the base camp, I found myself shifting my weight from one foot to the other often, fidgeting nervously. I was eyeing all tunnels that led out of the main chamber we set up camp in, especially the one Penny had disappeared into, just in case...
Meanwhile, Celeste turned on the MUTT’s floodlights to shine in the tunnel where Penny disappeared into.
“More bodies? Looks like it was quite the rebellion. Beyond denying the mogu a jade mine, I wonder if the Pandarens had another reason for risking their lives. Their freedom, obviously but maybe it’s connected to that unfinished quilen and the one we think is still lurking in-“
Celeste’s words cut off abruptly. Over the comms the sound of the MAD system reacting was heard. First several low thumps, followed by loud bangs. Undoubtedly the first response from the defensive system in the form of flashbangs then the unmistakable boom as the gun arm fired, then twice more! In lethal mode, the MAD system sure didn’t give intruders a lot of time to rethink their advance…
“Target spotted!” Celeste announced briskly but steadily. “Penny, I think the MUTT managed to score a hit, but stars is it still fast! It went back towards you, eyes sharp!”
“It packs quite a punch, too,” she said a short moment later. “It tore the MUTT’s front armor with its claws. The armor still has enough integrity, but the PEBBLE’s plating isn’t as thick. It’s a quilen. Decorated like the first one we found, but it isn’t missing its eyes.”
Penny whirled the PEBBLE around. She'd been on the floor, having had a bit too much blood begin rushing to her head from being upside-down earlier, but she edged closer to the wall, ready to get to safety again if need be. She saw and heard nothing so far, but, returning to the larger room, she got a closer look at the destroyed drone.
"No visual on target yet," she reported, "but I'm taking a closer look at this drone. It bears claw marks, but it also looks like the strength of the quilen shattered a few parts loose from it as well. I'm really going to need to work some evasive maneuvers here to keep from having the PEBBLE flying apart and exposing me to all this gas, let alone the quilen itself... I'm returning to the entrance tunnel. I'll see if I can't keep it between the two of us."
The PEBBLE skittered back into the entrance hall, headlights shining directly down the hall, as Penny hoped the sudden glare would stop the quilen in its tracks for at least a moment.
"Know what this thing needs?” Penny’s tiny voice squeaked over the comms. “An outer microphone with speakers in here around the cockpit to get some sound, so I can hear things before I see them!"
Penny had no sooner finished speaking than a four-legged shadow appeared, followed less than half a second later by a quilen. The quilen did indeed seem surprised by the new company it had, and the glare of the lights, but it slowed rather than stopped, choosing to charge down on the PEBBLE!
"GAAAH! Mechatorque's mechanical mechapants! FIRING CRYO-CANNON!"
FWWWWOOOSH!
Penny let loose a blast from the cryo-cannon, but it was too soon!
"Out of range! GAH I gotta--"
Penny's voice disappeared from the comms as she took her hand off the mic button and steered the PEBBLE to the right, ending her turn with a quick, sharp sweep, with the intention of spinning the PEBBLE out in order to sweep the quilen's legs out from under it. It WORKED! The quilen sprawled along the floor, bouncing and flipping over debris as it tumbled along!
Penny let out a “HA!” over the comms, then darted to the far side of it, blocking its path that way, firing another blast of the cryo-cannon at it. Another miss! Penny kicked out with the front leg while the cryo-cannon was working on preparing another blast. CRUNCH! Right in the face! The quilen took off again, this time back towards the MUTT!
"HIT!" Penny squeaked over the comms, "but with a leg sweep and a kick to the face, not the cryo-cannon. The creature's inbound and hot to your location, Explorer Base! HEADS UP!"
“Good job Penny!” came Celeste’s reply over the comms, reverberating still from within the ARMUTT’s dome. “Here’s what we’re going to do: I’m going to trigger every countermeasure the MAD mode has, including a few tools in the MUTT’s arms. Stay in the central chamber and wait to ambush the quilen. I bet there weren’t any machines in its day, so hopefully I’ll scare it back to you. Some of the countermeasures are lethal, as you know. Make sure you’re out of my line of fire. Considering how fast it is, I don’t want that quilen getting past me, so I’m starting my attack in ten…”
“Nine…”
“Eight…”
“Seven…”
“Six…”
“Five…”
“Four…”
“Three…”
“Two…”
“One…”
“Firing!”
BOO-BOO-BOO-BOO-BOO-BOO-BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The tunnel walls seemed to shake as Celeste threw everything she had at the passage in front if her. Booms from more flashbangs, gizmos that spun as they hit the floor and whistled loudly, bangs from the arm cannon as it fired continuously. The drill arm started tearing into the wall next to the MUTT adding dust and more noise. Celeste brightened the flood lights to a maximum and even shot a few bursts of water from the MUTT’s ventral reservoir.
The quilen, having never encountered anything of the sort, likely figured it had better chances against the other intruder deeper into the caves. It turned tail and sped back in the direction of the central cave.
Penny didn't need an outer mic with an inner speaker to hear the noise Celeste was making with the MUTT!
"Cogsdangit, that's a lot of noise!" Penny squeaked. "I'm used to machines and things that go boom, and I'M in shock and awe! HA! Come to mama, nice doggy!"
The quilen had last seen Penny on the floor, so she returned to the ceiling to surprise and confuse it further, skittering to the right and cackling like a mad fiend now that they had taken the initiative and had the quilen on its heels.
"In position..."
The quilen returned! Penny FIRED!
FWWWOOOOOSH!
"Cogsdangit, MISS! This is no non-lethal firebird we're hoping to-- OH NO!"
Mechanical and stone echoes clattered down the tunnel to those at the base camp at length...
Penny squealed as the quilen recovered from being startled and sprayed at, leaping with unanticipated agility and quickness toward the ceiling. WHAM! SCREEEEEEEEEECH! The impact of the quilen locking its jaws onto the upside-down top of the PEBBLE's dome and then slowly sliding off could be heard all the way at the camp!
"HEY!" squeaked Penny. "You know how much time I spent painting that?!"
The quilen leaped again!
"NOT THIS TIME!"
Penny released the suction cups, throwing her right legs out and tucking her left legs in so forcefully that it flipped the PEBBLE upright in mid air, and she landed deftly on her feet!
"Block-headed rock-face! TAKE THIS!"
Penny charged forward, now using the PEBBLE's diminutive size against the quilen, tucking all her legs under now, skidding underneath the quilen beneath its legs, then popping her rear legs on either side out to trip the quilen up again, just as she had earlier!
"HA!"
Penny jumped the PEBBLE back up to its feet again, whirling it around and firing another cryo-cannon shot!
FWWWOOOOOOOOSH!
"ANOTHER MISS?! COME ON!"
Penny skittered to the right rapidly, the confused, startled, nearly-panicked quilen watching as it stumbled around.
Darting up the right wall as the quilen charged, Penny thrust the PEBBLE off the right wall, maneuvering her legs forcefully to force another flip – a sideways cartwheel, more like, really – overtop of the now more-confused quilen's head, activating the suction cups as she hit the left wall. She rotated the cryo-cannon toward the quilen, who was now, finally, fixed in one place, looking around in confusion for its quarry.
FFWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
"YYYYYYYYYYYYYES!"
Penny's cheer came over the comms loudly, followed by a somewhat long bit of maniacal cackling.
"TARGET IMMOBILIZED! It's frozen solid! That's one quilen that won't be smashing any more drones for a while! Hey... how are we getting this thing outta here again? The PEBBLE isn't exactly equipped with a crane! But heck it... WE DID IT! That quilen is DONE!"
Cheers echoed over the comms as the other Explorers heard Penny confirm her victory.
“Awesome job, Penny!” Celeste cheered over the comms. “The Cogswitches tell me you were making the PEBBLE DANCE around that quilen! I knew you had it in you. You’re a natural!
“Keep an eye on that quilen. I have some strong cables and stone anchors ready. The MUTT’s too big to fit in the passage, so I’ll have to get my deep-dive helmet to reach you. We’ll tie it down securely for now. Once that’s done, we can clear the gas from the tunnels and continue our exploration. I’ll need a minute or two, standby.”
"Roger that, standing by and keeping an eye on the target," Penny replied, a blush in her voice. "And thanks for the kind words, you and the twins! About those steel cables... how about some straight logs, branches and twigs hewn off, that we can use to roll this thing out of here with? Or should we just dip into the arcane, summon a portal, and shove this frozen rockboy into it, with the FB standing by with a winch? How are we going to handle that bit?"
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Celeste replied, “but a portal is a swell idea, and easy to apply… assuming we can port somewhere safe with a live but frozen quilen.”
"We may need to send word ahead to the Shrine of the Seven Stars with whomever pilots the FB there that we have this thing and we'd like permission to teleport it in, provided we immediately airlift it out when it arrives," I spoke up, audible to Penny over the comms. "Then we can figure out someplace safe to keep it and study it if that's still the plan!"
Celeste piloted the ARMUTT out of the ruins and left it where her and her uncle’s flying machine were waiting. The rest of the supply crates were sitting nearby. It didn’t take long for Celeste to find her deep-dive helmet and the cables.
On her way back with the coiled cables over her shoulder and her helmet under her arm, she was stopped by Bulchor Breakstone, who had been quiet and out of sight so far.
“Congratulations on your success, Miss McCullough,” The dwarf said, looking like he’d just swallowed a dead rat. I had to stifle a giggle at that! Celeste told me later that she had wondered what new angle he was working when he came over to congratulate her.
“I would, if I may, advise you to reconsider your plan to study the creature,” Bulchor continued, in a patronizing tone. “Too dangerous for someone as inexperienced with such things.”
Celeste smiled sweetly, giving him a nod and the fakest smile she could muster.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
On her way back she stopped to chat with Uncle Rugnar and I. That’s when she told us, quietly, about what Bulchor told her.
“He’s probably just angling to reduce our success, but I have to admit that trying to study something that strong might be a risk I’m not sure is worth taking. What do you think?”
“Aye, ol’ Breakstone might be anglin’ to take ye down some. Seems to me we should jus’ destroy the thing, if we can…” Uncle Rugnar said, nodding at Celeste’s concerns about both Bulchor and the quilen.
"You know," I piped up. "We could pacify ol' Bulbous Bulchor, AND keep ourselves safe, AND get some studying done on quilen all at once, if you want... not to mention, an easier portal task... what if we just send it to the Kirin Tor in Dalaran, and let them study it from within a safe cell up at Violet Hold? Then we could read whatever the publish on the creatures after they study it thoroughly themselves!"
“That’s EXACTLY what we need, Nat!” Celeste exclaimed. “I’ll hurry and help Penny with her prize, then we can drag that quilen directly to Dalaran. We’ll be able to start changing the air in the tunnels in no time!”
She gave me a kiss, then sped off in the direction of the jade mine tunnel, putting on her deep-dive helmet and giving instructions to the group over her comms.
I blushed at the praise and kiss and waited back at the tunnel entrance to help Celeste, Blinking into the Flying Nosebleed and hovering over the outside of the tunnel entrance, where Celeste's portal would be.
It took some time, but soon the results of the engineering team's hard work and Penny's piloting skills came into view around the bend: a frozen quilen, sitting in a large ice block, with the steel cables wrapped around it being rolled along on logs. Celeste, her deep-dive helmet on her head, was continually taking the log in the back and repeatedly placing it up in the front. Penny was pulling it along with the PEBBLE, and eventually, the two had the quilen out!
Taking a moment to catch her breath (she didn't need a long moment, fit and athletic as the former military girl was) and wiping the sweat from her forehead, she soon reached out to the winch I extended and attached it to the steel cables around the frozen ice block with the quilen in it. Looking up to me, she raised a finger into the air and made circular motions with it, the signal to raise the winch. I did so, and, below the hoisted quilen ice block on the ground appeared a portal with the distorted shapes of the violet and white towers of Dalaran.
Celeste looked up at me again, this time pointing a finger down and making another circular motion, and I nodded, lowering the quilen into the portal.
There was a mixture of alarm and interest from the mages around Dalaran when they arrived, and they agreed eagerly to take the quilen for study. There was so little of this creature in their bestiaries! The mages wanted to pay for the creature, but Celeste said that publishing their findings and sending copies to them, the Pandaren Loremasters, and the Explorer’s League as soon as possible would be pay enough, much to the mages’ delight.
The engineering team dined in Dalaran on food fit for nobility, then returned home through another portal, flying from the Shrine of the Seven Stars back to the digsite. It was now time to set up the MUTT for air pumping, and we decided we’d start that in earnest the next morning!
It is now that morning, so now we’re all just hanging around the campsite while the pump works. Celeste got the air pump hooked up in the MUTT and has a couple of hoses connected to the pump, the other end of which she lashed onto the PEBBLE. She got her deep-dive helmet on again, following the PEBBLE in while it dragged the heavy hoses down the corridor, freeing up any snags along the way and then detaching them from the PEBBLE when they got to the gas. Laying them on the floor once in place, she turned and came back with the PEBBLE, and now we’re filling up air tanks with methane gas to release in maybe a swamp that already has methane or something.
In the meantime, we’re just waiting on the gas to be cleared, and now there’s more coffee and a card game starting up, so I’m gonna play for a while!
Gosh, I can’t wait to FINALLY get into that jade cavern and take a look around with my own eyes! I bet it’ll be SO COOL! I can’t wait to see if we get any more stuff for the League! And I can’t wait to see if my Stormwind friends finally are ready to go help me with my dream and maybe play some DEATHROLLS, too, soon! YAY!
Nat looked down into the tunnel with a smile as the happy thoughts swirled in her head. She poked her mechanical pen back into her mechanical inkwell, returning it and her diary to her pack before joining in the card game. Golbert came to join in as well, and it became quite the party!
The Stoutgardens and Suyin played for a while as well, eventually deciding to make an early start on cooking lunch, tending to the camp’s grill and cooking fire in between hands. A lunch of slow-roasted jungle antelope, brought down in the pre-dawn light on a hunt by Celeste and her Uncle Rugnar, was now giving off a heavenly aroma as the Stoutgardens and Suyin worked their herbal magic over it to perfection. The card games (and pumping) lasted through lunch, and eventually, the heat of the jungle drove everyone to the beach.
With the pump cut off for now, the group (sans Bulchor Breakstone and his aide, who retired to their tents for the evening) donned swimsuits and frolicked in the gentle waves of Turtle Beach, played Keep-Away with Dordy (whose full belly did nothing to tame his boundless energy), and worked on a surprisingly well-done sand castle that was modeled after Stormwind City.
Anglers returning to their Anglers Wharf homes from the day’s fishing spied the party and came to attend as well, and many, including Other Nat, brought over some of what they caught for a dinner party there on the beach, where Celeste regaled them all with tales of Penny’s heroics. Celeste’s tales made Nat stifle a few giggles and Other Nat give her a few winks as the story progressed through how the PEBBLE was piloted through an entire pack of killer quilen that were finally done in when Penny jumped the PEBBLE onto the back of one, using it as a mount as she sprayed the cryo-cannon in wide sweeps all around her, freezing quilen creatures left, right, and center before leaping backwards off the quilen she was on to freeze that one from behind. Embellished or not, everyone in attendance listened attentively as they ate their fish and drank their Stormstout brews, eyes wide, gasping together in all the right places and cheering and clapping for Penny and the team when it Celeste concluded her tale.
The party went on for a bit longer, though Nat had to retire early, citing the early work morning to come. Some stayed longer as Celeste and the team entertained them a bit further, but soon Celeste came up to unwind with Nat and join her for sleep at the end of the day.
Nat fell asleep that night with a smile on her face, visions of heroic PEBBLE piloting, awe-striking jade caverns, and Celeste standing triumphant before the Explorer’s League officials dancing in her head. She was sure the latter two would become as true as the former vision, and she couldn’t wait to watch it all happen!
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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Jul 20, 2023 13:39:09 GMT
July the Twentieth A cool breeze blew through the open, screened windows of the House-On-The-Spire, bringing with it the fragrances of the salt air of the sea, the earthy smells of the jungle, and all the tropical flowers in full bloom for miles. From within the house came the smells of breakfast, where coffee, eggs, bacon, sausages, and various veggies for omelets were just consumed (with considerable gusto, in Dordy’s case). With windows open on both sides of the house, the air moved continually but peacefully, cycling the air completely every ten minutes or so, keeping the air fresh and cool and flowing. The sounds of the morning’s gulls and the slow, gentle waves on the shore combined with the wind in the trees of Krasarang Wilds’ jungle, interspersed with the occasional call of a jungle bird or the distant yowling of a jungle cat.
All this funneled below into the workshop, with its hangar door open on the seaside face of the spire and the door to the upstairs parts of the house also open. Spare parts, tools, a coffee mug, a diary, and a mechanical inkwell sat on the workbench. Nat sat here on her stool with her diary, while Celeste sat in the cockpit of the MUTT, tinkering with a wiring of a control lever she’d found to be slightly less responsive of late, the top covering of the panel removed and held in one of the MUTT’s clawed hands. Dordy was sniffing around at the MUTT’s feet, occasionally licking the floor a bit, or snatching up a dropped morsel of food – it was tough to eat one-handed while leaning over the edge of the MUTT’s cockpit to clean dirt from the elbow joint of its arm!
All in all, it was a perfectly normal morning at home, and Nat felt happy and at peace. Turning from her little family back to her diary, she poked the button that popped her mechanical pen out, took it into her hand, and began to write.
Dear diary,
Not much has really happened this week. It’s been mainly a week of working on the (AR)MUTT and the PEBBLE after our adventures with the quilen in the jade mines last week. We’ve hunted and fished and smoked fish and other meat and basically restocked all the supplies in the digsite camp. We’re set to go for when we wanna head into that jade mine on foot and really explore it!
The team was really busy while I was at work for the workend, too! During my first day at work, Celeste and the Explorer crew continued the removal of the methane left in the mine. The PEBBLE was outfitted with an air tester and Penny was able to not only find the remaining pockets of gas, but also to map out the mines themselves! The maps area really detailed, and we now have a way better idea of what we’re going to be going into now!
After the main chamber, there are three tunnels branching out. Two of them end up with more jade deposits, but the third one, in the middle, revealed something new. There were more defeated mogu here, even a few dead quilen that were equally as big and decorated as the one they had captured. It was clear that the pandaren slaves had targeted this area in their rebellion for their freedom, as the many skeletons on the ground attested to. This place though also seemed like some sort of workshop. Tools, tables and pieces of jade were found here and there in the spacious cavern. Penny, with her headlights, couldn't get a complete view of the place, but the gnomes imaging her progress back in camp said they thoughts they saw some sort of altar or main workbench. It would need to be investigated, and the Cogswitches were already at work producing more lights to string through the tunnels so everyone could see once the new section could be safely explored. I can’t wait to see that!
Celeste gave the Stoutgardens use of the Wave Dancer and Nosebleed for the day, too, which was super nice of her! The pandaren couple were delighted to take the trip there and back to Anglers Wharf to get some grouper for everyone, which was on special that day.
Bulchor and his aide mostly seemed interested in the holographic map of the new tunnels. They weren't in anyone's way, so they were left to their own devices. Golbert arranged my cataloging tent, which was really nice of him, and even collaborated with Shalyra to have some maps of them tunnels drawn out and posted for us! Shalyra said she could use the base cutout of the holographic image to give a general sense of what the tunnels looked like in two dimensions. She’s so smart! My cataloguing tent now has clear maps of the ruins tacked to a corkboard near the entrance. That’s gonna make cataloging and referencing the location of each artifact so much easier! I love this team!
Just before lunch on the second day of my workend, the tunnels were deemed safe for exploration as the last of the methane was pumped out. Celeste didn't like having so many containers full of pressurized flammable gas around the campsite, and, when discussing it with the group, the Cogswitch twins suggested selling the natural gas in Gnomeregan, since it was one of the cleanest fuels one could use in combustion engines. The twins insisted on showing Penny their homeland, so she went with them. The canisters were strapped together, checked for leaks, and placed in Nosebleed's cargo nets. Penny and the twins took a portal to Gnomeregan and left. Celeste said she'd open a portal again at the same location the next morning at 9 am to give them a way back. Nosebleed didn't mind Penny telling him where to go, but chuffed in annoyance at one of the twins when the gnome tried to scan him with some sort of device. The Cogswitches didn't try anything else after that! Hehe.
The rest of the group went to Halfhill for lunch and to celebrate the clearing of the gas from the tunnels. Celeste invited Bulchor and his aide along but, not surprisingly, they refused. She didn't like leaving the ruins to Bulbous, but, seeing as she had allowed him to remain in the expedition, she didn't have much choice...
In the afternoon, Celeste and her group went to the farm to tend to the crops and improve the camp's food stocks for the week to come. Without Nosebleed, however, the task proved a bit harder, and the vegetables had to be airlifted in several trips with the FB and uncle Rugnar's own flying machine. They got it done, though!
Exhausted, the group finally returned to the base camp. Bulchor and his aide kept out of sight in their own tent, whispering to each other. That doesn’t sound to good… I hope they’re not going to be up to something rotten!
That’s about it, for now. Celeste and I are going back to the camp today, and Penny and the Cogswitch twins should be back today as well! I think we’ll put in a good day of work today before my minication runs out, probably just getting an initial look on foot, for the first time, at that jade mine.
That recurring dream is still coming at me. Going to that scary place, and my friends not wanting to hear it when I say I don’t want to endanger them over something dumb, and them coming along with me anyway. I really hope I can knock that one out sometime soon too!
In the meantime, Celeste has the MUTT ready. We’re gonna head to the digsite now and get started! Gosh, I can’t wait to finally set foot in the jade mine! I can’t wait to get this dream thing taken care of finally! I can’t wait to see how the rest of the archaeology turns out, and what we might find in the aftermath of that pandaren slave revolt against the mogu! There’s a lot of history to be found down there! YAY!
Nat quickly poked her mechanical pen back into her mechanical inkwell, snapping her diary shut and rushing upstairs to put her things back in her office where they belonged, Dordy underfoot the entire time (her excited speed-walking riled him up, and he was ready to come along, whatever the adventure was!). Walking quickly back downstairs (nearly tripping on Dordy twice on the spiral staircase), she took up her coffee mug, handing Celeste hers, and they finished off their coffee. Taking the mugs back upstairs to the sink and rapidly washing them, she hurried downstairs once. Nat grabbed Dordy’s aviator goggles, which sent Dordy into a fit of excited yips, and managed to get them onto his head, then handed him up to Celeste, who got him harnessed into the cockpit of the MUTT. Nat Blinked up into the cockpit of the Flying Nosebleed and went through her pre-flight checklist, then took off out of the hangar, Celeste zooming out behind her. Together, they rode to their Halfhill farm to pick up a few last food crates and a bundle of bamboo. Celeste used the MUTT to get the supplies together as Nat hovered overhead, lowering the winch for Celeste to attach the load. From there, they flew to the digsite.
''Everyone should be at the dig site soon,” Celeste told Nat over the comms as they flew. “I'm expecting them for the briefing, which I've scheduled for lunch. The Stoutgardens offered to come earlier to prepare an awesome lunch for everyone with the harvest from the farm and some fish they caught themselves with our Angler friends.''
The camp came into view at that moment, and they both realized something had gone horribly wrong. The tents were in tatters, the kitchen and picnic tables were ruined. There was no sign of anyone on the ground...
''Oh no...” Celeste moaned. “What happened now? I don't see the Stoutgardens, or even Bulchor and his aide... They were the only ones who had elected to stay onsite... This is a disaster!''
Nat peered around, eyes wide, startled.
"I have no idea what this could have been... another quilen, perhaps? Or vandalism made to look like a quilen, by Bulchor and his aide? They sure were muttering a lot last I saw them... keeping to themselves... but gosh, if it WAS a quilen, or some other creature, I sure hope those two are okay! They deserve to be strung up a flagpole by their underwear or something, perhaps, but not THIS!"
“We’ll need to investigate. I might not be fond of Bulchor Breakstone, but I’m not about to abandon him down there with some wild beast lurking in those ruins.” The dome on the MUTT swiveled into place, putting Celeste under armor. The engineer maneuvered the machine’s gun arm into firing position. The ARMUTT landed with a loud thump in the middle of the dining area. Nat could see the MAD mode being turned on as well.
“Nat, could you contact the others on the comms? Warn them that there’s danger at the site? Maybe you’ll be able to hail the Stoutgardens and Suyin. I don’t see any sign of them here; they may have evacuated safely. “
“I think there was a fight here. The damage looks like Nosebleed’s handywork. Whatever attacked likely ended up facing him. I think the Stoutgardens left with Nosebleed. You might be able to spot them from the air…”
"Right, got it!" Nat said, immediately turning and hurrying onto Onyx, sitting sidesaddle as usual. She took to the skies, flying in concentric circles around the site, spiraling out as she scanned the ground below. Even as she launched off from the ground, she was on her comms.
"This is Nat to all Explorer's League members and associates of the Krasarang digsite! Site has been attacked! Stoutgardens, Suyin, Breakstone and aide, please respond if you're free of the site attack and okay! To all: please, PLEASE keep away from the digsite until we're certain it's safe!"
Nat repeated the message every few minutes, still flying in spirals out from the site, still searching, searching, looking for the dwarves, for her friends, for Nosebleed's huge, beloved hide, for signs of anyone...(To be continued...)
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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Jul 27, 2023 11:55:51 GMT
July the Twenty-Seventh The workshop/hangar in the first sublevel of the House-On-The-Spire saw heavy activity this morning. Two humans, a dwarf, two gnomes, one mechagnome, and a draenei all crowded around one deeply disassembled MUTT. The tool arm was off, as was the armor, and the wiring within was a tangled mess in front of it, hanging off like ivy off a tree. Some of the wiring was severed and needed replacing, and the group was focusing on that now while Dordy stayed underfoot, sniffing around and trying, on occasion, to leap up and grab the wiring and play.
There was more lighting than usual, as the MUTT needed a lot of attention. The mechanical fishtank was throwing off a shimmering light, aided and abetted by several hanging lanterns, which also meant an army of shadows in every direction as the group toiled around the MUTT. The pleasant aroma of coffee did not entirely mask the scent of grease, flame, and a faint hint of melted metal. The workshop rang with the sound of wrenching, ratcheting, drilling, tapping, and many friendly voices.
At present, the group was beginning to discuss rather advanced levels of electrical engineering, something Nat was less familiar with, so she decided to get out of the way and let far more seasoned experts handle that bit. She headed upstairs, returning with her diary and mechanical inkwell, then made another trip upstairs to bring down the coffee pot. Topping everyone off and adding cream to a few who didn’t take their coffee black, she replaced the coffee and cream upstairs and returned once more. Taking her spot at the workbench (which was littered with coils of wiring and assorted tools and machine parts), she cleared off a small spot for her own coffee, as well as her diary and inkwell. Poking the button to pop out her pen, she opened her diary to the next blank page and began to write.
Dear diary,
Gosh, it’s been a peaceful week after we had ourselves a scare later in the day one week ago today! There was an attack back at the camp, and we had to figure out what the heck happened! It was right after I finished last week’s diary post, and goodness gracious, was it scary!
Celeste and I were heading to the digsite to continue on with a bit of work there, but when we came within view of the camp, we immediately knew something was wrong! The tents were in tatters, the camp was a mess, and everything looked totally wrecked! Worse still, the Stoutgarden pandarens, as well as Bulchor Breakstone and his aide Durnen, who had all remained behind there, were missing, and it seemed like something horrible might have happened to them!
Celeste said we’d need to investigate immediately, and that we’d especially need to find our missing crew. Neither of us are fans of Bulbous Bulchor, but being destroyed out in the jungle was something not even he deserved, so I set out to find them immediately, flying out on Onyx and spiraling outward from the camp, trying to see if I could find any of the others from the air while Celeste investigated the camp from within the MUTT. I put out the warning over the comms that the camp had been attacked and was not safe and to stay away as I flew, while also listening to Celeste over the comms.
“I’m coming up on the tents,” she was saying. “Tracks, definitely something clawed and heavy. There were no other quilen in those tunnels though!
“Wait! No, STOP!”
I heard a few loud bangs over the comms and then it went quiet on Celeste’s end. Inside the ARMUTT, which she’d flown there, I knew she was fairly safe, so she likely just stopped broadcasting.
As my circling brought me close to the beach at the edge of the jungle, I immediately spotted Nosebleed’s giant shape as the direhorn came out of the jungle. Guiding the great beast was Suyin, who seemed mostly to just hang in while Nosebleed led himself. Sitting in one if the cargo nets were the Stoutgardens, who waved up at me as I flew overhead.
“I’m jus’ comin’ o’er the cliff, lass!” Uncle Rugnar said on the comms. “I’ll be landin’ at the site soon!”
“Shalyra here. Understood. Standing by.” The draenei had gone to stay with the Anglers over the weekend, soaking in the local culture.
"Penny here," the familiar tiny voice squeaked over the comms. "The Cogswitches and I were just en route back to the portal site for the trip home from Mechagon; glad you warned us when you did! We should be back to Halfhill soon. We'll stand by there for directions."
I felt relief that most of the crew seemed to be accounted for, yet I was still worried about Celeste being back at that camp by herself and seemingly under duress, and even concerned for Bulchor and his aide.
"Celeste," I called. "What just happened? Do you need me to come back? I found our pandaren friends and Nosebleed, heading toward the beach, nearly there. I can come back if you need help! What's going on?"
“I’m fine.” Celeste’s voice came over the comms and I could detect a good chunk of annoyance in her tone. The reason for that was obvious soon after.
“It’s Bulchor’s aide. Durnen. He was hiding in your cataloguing tent, Nat, and popped out when he saw the MUTT. The MAD mode almost blew him to smithereens.
“He’s mostly stunned from the flashbangs, thankfully. I got him in the MUTT’s free hand, heading out of the camp. No sign of Bulchor. I’m going to drop this guy off at the beach then head back. If anything is still lurking in the ruins, I’d rather try to keep it in there. I’ll stay in the ARMUTT at the entrance to the ruins.
“Uncle Rugnar, I’ll need you to stay up in the air on overwatch until I get back.
“Nat, I’d like you to talk to Durnen at the beach, see if you can figure out what happened. Suyin should check him for wounds too.”
"Roger that,” I replied. “I'm on my way back to the others then. I'll meet you there."
I wheeled Onyx around and made a bee-line for the beach, swooping low over the trees and rapidly making my landing before sliding down off of Onyx and checking in with the others.
"Durnen's incoming with Celeste,” I announced to the group. “Are you guys okay? Is anyone hurt? Were you there during the attack? What's going on?"
“We were in the cooking area, unpacking the giant lizard when we saw the dwarf, Durnen come running out of the ruins, screaming!” Ji-Soo said quickly, looking like she was still in shock. Huo took over for his wife. They had all disembarked from Nosebleed now. The giant direhorn turned to chew on some jungle leaves. I noticed Suyin quickly moving to inspect something on the flank opposite them, med kit in hand.
“That’s right. Then that quilen came. The clay one in the ruins. Except it had eyes this time. Jade eyes that glowed brightly. Tore through the came and came straight at us when the dwarf hid. Lucky for us, Nosebleed wouldn’t stand for it. Started bellowing and smashing his tail on the ground. I’ll never forget the sight. That quilen took a swipe at him and got a headbutt for his troubles. Though it was done for; those horns aren’t just for show! Well, it got up on its own. The wounds it had just molded back into place, but it ran back into the ruins. Suyin got us out of there after that.”
"Goodness gracious!" I replied, eyes wide. "I'm so very glad no one else was hurt! Suyin, will Nosebleed be alright?"
I moved around Nosebleed to inspect the wound with Suyin, grimacing to see it.
"Gosh, you're such a brave, brave boy, Nosebleed!” I said, moving around front to pat his beak soothingly. “Good job defending everyone! I'm so glad you were there!"
"But... Where's Bulchor?"
“Yes, big beast be okay. Much strength. This will help heal,” Suyin smiled at me as she slathered a salve on a set of claws marks that had managed to cut through Nosebleed’s thick scales. The wounds bled a little, but otherwise didn’t seem to bother the perpetually stoic direhorn all that much.
Just then, the sound of the MUTT’s heavy steps was heard and the machine emerged from the jungle a little further down the beach. Durnen the dwarf was cradled in the machine’s free hand while the gun arm was raised up to the sky. Celeste stopped the machine near Suyin and I and she immediately Blinked out, as soon as the armored dome was raised.
“Oh no! My big boy! Is he going to be ok?” Celeste asked Suyin, pausing only briefly to give me a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Yes, he will be fine. Only superficial wounds,” Suyin reassured her.
Celeste moved around to face Nosebleed who paused in his chewing to nudge her affectionately with his beak. Celeste hugged one of his legs then returned to me. The Stoutgardens were checking on Durnen.
“Alright, what happened?” Celeste asked, her tone leaving no doubt that she was beyond fed up with Bulchor’s shenanigans whom it was clear she blamed. “That dig site was safe. No quilens were even remotely close, except for that unfinished clay one. How blazes did this new one appear? It WAS a quilen, right?”
Celeste had her hands on her hips, leaning slightly forward as she bore down on Durnen.
“Please, give space,” Suyin chided her softly. She had finished with Nosebleed and came to inspect the dwarf who also seemed wounded. Celeste backed off, but her features remained angry.
“Bulchor, he…” The dwarf stammered. “He wanted to be the first to explore the new tunnels, specifically that workshop.”
“THAT’S what you’ve been plotting in your little corner while we worked? To what? Steal this digsite? There’s no personal glory to be had here! We’re all a TEAM! I can’t believe that little dirt-sniffer…”
I didn’t generally see Celeste so worked up so fast, but I could obviously see the situation was escalating quickly, so I moved in to help Suyin settle Celeste down.
"Erm... C-Celeste?" I said, a hand softly rubbing Celeste's back. "Bulchor could be hurt in there. I dunno what he did, put the eyes in that one clay quilen to finish it and activate it or what, but whatever ulterior motives he may have had, he's still a member of this digsite and we still had better get Penny to go in after him in the PEBBLE."
Unspoken, at least in front of Bulbous' aide (though Celeste knows me to my core and knows what I would say if Durnen weren’t there), was the warning that Durnen might also use an explosion by Celeste as a way to report her as unfit to be in the League to the officials in Ironforge.
"Want me to give her a call right quick?"
My gentle touch seemed to deflate Celeste some.
“You’re right. We have more pressing things to attend to, and we’ll need Penny and the PEBBLE. Tell uncle Rugnar what he’s looking for as well, okay?”
She gave me a hug to thank me for bringing her around, then faced Durnen again. “Is that what happened? Did Breakstone somehow activate that clay quilen?” she asked.
Durnen winced as Suyin applied ointment to a scratch on his back and nodded to Celeste. “We found jade eyes in the workshop. Exquisitely crafted, unlike anything we have ever seen. It was obvious they were the missing eyes on the clay quilen. Bulchor wanted to be the one to complete the statue. We didn’t think it would awaken the quilen! We ran as soon as it started moving. I lost sight of Bulchor in the ruins. I don’t know where he is, or if he’s even still alive.”
I listened to Durnen talk for a moment, then rapidly called Penny. Penny appeared moments later, having apparently scrambled down the cliff face and through the jungle in the PEBBLE with the Cogswitches clinging for dear life, both looking thrilled at the ride, their hair windblown.
Penny dropped off the Cogswitches with the others at the beach, then immediately sped off toward the digsite!
"On site," Penny squeaked over the comms. "Explorer Camp secure. No sign of target or Breakstone. Cogs and sprockets, this place is in tatters. Entering corridor to quilen's last known location, its sculpting room. Proceeding to site. Stand by..."
Penny scrambled along in the PEBBLE, peering at the viewscreen, hoping to find Bulbous first and evacuate him.
“I better join her. If this thing is as strong as the last one, having backup couldn’t hurt our chances,” Celeste said, then blinked into the ARMUTT “We’ll deal with this. Hopefully for the last time…”
The dome lowered into place, sealing Celeste inside. The ARMUTT turned and ran after the PEBBLE.
“Alright, Penny,” Celeste’s voice came over the comms. “I’m right behind you. We don’t know where Bulchor is, so be careful with your line of fire if you use the cryo cannon. There are a lot of passages in these ruins. I’ll stand guard at each intersection while you clear the side passages. Once we reach the jade mine, we’ll have to either split up, or leave the tunnel unexplored and our backs open for ambush. Bulchor is our priority, but taking out that quilen will work for us too. Destroy it if you must.”
The ruins were dark, from what Penny told us later. The quilen had torn through the lights strung up by the twins at the beginning of the expedition. Signs of the creature were everywhere: broken frescos, claws marks, and, ominously, blood. Penny could see a few spatters on a wall. Judging by the drip marks, it was likely where Durnen was attacked.
I took up position in the base camp, watching all entrances, not wanting to let the quilen loose into the wilds, my summoning magic at the ready. I wished Celeste and Penny good luck as they investigated from within their respective machines in the darkness.
Penny zipped in, finding the blood before too long.
"Blood here. Likely Durnen's, but possibly Bulchor's. I suspect the former. Continuing in. No sign of either objective at this time. Approaching jade mine, main room. Commencing recon..."
“We’re going to have to split up,” Celeste said as she stopped the ARMUTT at the entrance to the mine. “We need to find Breakstone. I don’t want his death on my conscience OR on my career as an Explorer. I’ll head to the shrine where we first found the quilen, you head to the workshop in the mine. If the creature is in here, it’ll likely be in one of those places. Good luck, Penny.”
“Alright gang, Penny and I are splitting up to cover ground more quickly. Nat, Uncle Rugnar, I’ll need you to keep watching the entrance to the ruins. The tunnels are clear behind us, so you should be okay, but I’d prefer having a line of defense at the entrance again.”
Celeste finished giving out orders, then marched the ARMUTT deeper into the ruins.
I nodded, moving to take a couple of chairs and bring them to the entrance. Placing one down for Uncle Rugnar, I sat down to watch the tunnels. I considered using an Eye of Kilrogg to help scout the tunnels, but I didn't want to alarm anyone that wasn't used to such beings unless I absolutely had to.
Penny, meanwhile, spoke an acknowledgement as well, still skittering around the tunnels with her dome closed and her viewscreen on.
"This blood trail goes a bit... Activating high beams. There, that's better. Cogs, these droplets look bad... at least it's evidence Breakstone wasn't killed outright, and was ambulatory. Blood trail ends here, though... I'll need to check the tunnels and see if it picks up again. Proceeding through left tunnel first...
"Nothing. Skeletons and broken mogu bits no longer in evidence this far in. There's a massive spiderweb spread across the tunnel here. As it's intact, I doubt the target came this far in. Returning to jade mine, primary room.
"I'm here. Taking center tunnel. Skeletons and mogu bits in evidence. Stand by... the blood trail picks up again here. It's going deeper into the central tunnel from the jade mine. Brass sprockets, it's dark in here. No peripheral vision at all outside the illuminated spots from the high beams. There's a doorway here... looks like another one of their workshops. Going up the wall to check it out from the relative safety of the ceiling. Entering...
"COGS! I'M UNDER ATTACK!"
Dull thunks and thuds resonated over the comms as Penny protested.
"COME OFF IT, YOU MINDLESS SIMPLETON! YOU KNOW THIS IS ARMORED! GAH! KNOCK IT OFF!"
The muffled roaring of a voice speaking dwarvish can be heard in the distance, beyond Penny's voice.
"KNOCK IT OFF BEFORE I ATOMICALLY RECALIBRATE YOU!"
Another roar in dwarvish, then a thud, then silence....
...
"...Penny here. Package secured. Extracting. Out."
Penny sounded quite annoyed! She soon returned to the MUTT, following it out to the base camp, one leg up, to the right, and curled to hold a bloody, manic-looking Bulchor Breakstone!
"I found him under a workshop workbench," Penny squeaked back at the camp, after opening the dome. "No sign of the quilen, but I think THIS one-" she shot a dark look at Bulbous "-thought I was the quilen, returning to finish him off! Alright, Mister Breakstone, what have you to say for yourself?"
''The eyes! Glowing eyes... eyes.... in the dark... coming... coming for us all!'' Bulchor stammered out in a daze. "Can't be killed... can't be destroyed!'' Bulchor reached to grab the bottom of my dress in despair ''We have to RUN!'' he shouted out at the end, eyes wild.
''He's finally lost it...'' Celeste said, unimpressed as she also raised the top of the ARMUTT "That bit about the quilen being invincible is troubling, but for now, we'll have to consider it as being the ramblings of a mind gone astray. I'll contact the twins and tell them to bring Nosebleed and Suyin here to take care of him. We should track down that quilen. If it wasn't in the mine, then it should be easy to corner if it's still in the ruins.''
"R-right..." I said, looking down at Bulchor, feeling a mixture of fear, concern, guilt, and pity. "Are we going to go ahead and look for it right now?"
"If so, the PEBBLE still has plenty of fuel," said Penny. "I'm up for it if you are, comrades!"
"If not, we should just park the MUTT here in MAD mode to block the way out of the ruins for now," I suggested.
"No, now is our chance to finish this for good. After that, no more quilen. We'll be free to finish this dig," Celeste said, gently prying Bulchor away from me. "Penny, we'll just have to be ready to improvise if this thing proves to be stronger than your cryo-cannon or the MUTT's arm gun...'' She moved to give me a kiss and a hug. ''No old quilen will get the best of us. I'll be back faster than you know. You'll be alright keeping an eye on Bulchor and the ruins with Uncle Rugnar again? Maybe I should stay here; you could pilot the MUTT just as well if you'd prefer going with Penny."
"Oh gosh, erm, no, I think you're way better at MUTT piloting than I am!" I replied. "I'd be just as likely to blast a hole right through a priceless old vase or fresco as I would to hit the quilen! I'll watch Bulchor here with the others. You and Penny go on ahead! But be careful, please!"
Penny nodded, closing the dome on the PEBBLE once more. She re-entered the ruins, soon switching on the suction cups to walk on the wall to the MUTT's left, keeping herself at Celeste's flank.
"Come out, come out, quilen!" she squeaked over the comms, though it was unlikely anyone outside and not near a comms speaker would hear it. "Come out, come out and plaaaayyyy!"
Huo Stoutgarden's voice was heard on the comms then. "Just... what? Press this button here? H- hello? I don't think it's working. They aren't replying. Hello? Are you sure it's this button? Maybe I'll just go there and...''
Followed by Jin-Soo's voice "No, you are staying HERE. You press this button then RELEASE it to hear their replies! -Sorry guys, here's my husband again, who has some information for Penny and Celeste.”
Ahem, right,” Huo’s deep voice returned to the comms. “Sorry about that. Be careful with that quilen. It's not a normal one. It somehow heals up wounds, like the gouge Nosebleed caused. Sealed right back up. Oddest thing; wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Reminds me of the time I was out in the Jade Forest as a lad, and— "
"They need to focus husband,” came Ji-Soo on the comms again. “This is no time for stories. Good luck, you two."
"Alright,” Celeste was laughing as she keyed Penny's direct comm. “As entertaining as that was, that information was fairly valuable. I think I know now why it was made of clay and not hardened. They must've somehow enchanted the clay to remold itself, and leaving it malleable would help with that. It's also probably why the pandaren slaves decided to pool their meager resources and rebel. They couldn't risk that quilen being finished. It was the EYES! That’s why they attacked the workshop! I bet that was the final piece to make it whole. Probably why they hid the ruins too! Then Bulbous went ahead and finished the mogu’s work! Penny, I think I have an idea on how to destroy it. If Nosebleed's horn didn't kill it, my MUTT's cannon won't fare better. We could try freezing, but I suspect it'll shrug that off too. We'll have to be on opposite sides of it and hit it with your cryo cannon on one end while I pour as much fire as I can from the other side. The clay on your end will harden and contract, while on my side, it'll likely expand before it dries out and hardens too. That limited window, though, should create enough force to hopefully cleave it halfway. If that fails, I'm going to collapse this whole ruin on top of it."
"Ah, yes, thermal expansion!" Penny replied, still grinning after chuckling at Huo's chatter. "An excellent application of science to solve this problem! Very well, let us sally forth and hunt the hunter! Lead the way!"
Penny climbed the wall again, traveling upside-down on the ceiling for now, trailing the MUTT while keeping an eye on her rear-view mirrors in her goggles.
"Nothing at our six o'clock, chief. Activating cryo-cannon. Reducing temperature of cryo-core 18.75923 – repeating, of course – degrees. Scanning. Head on a swivel!"
Celeste maneuvered the ARMUTT further into the ruins, passing the jade mine. It was clear she suspected the quilen had returned to the room where they first encountered it while it was inanimate. Soon, up ahead, an orange glow could be seen. The two pilots and their machines arrived into the ritual chamber. The two long basins of water that flanked the path leading to the large dais at the opposite end of the room were undisturbed, save for the dozens of candles that floated on the surface.
"Bulbous even took the time to make a ceremony of it,” Celeste said. “Look, he must've lit the candles floating there. He's really lost his marbles... Penny, can you detect the quilen? I don't see it in the ARMUTT's lights."
"Scanning..." Penny replied, turning the PEBBLE slowly as she dangled from the ceiling. "Getting a lot of glare from all these candles on the viewscreen. That self-important fud sure wasted a lot of time and energy in making himself feel grand in his grandiose plans to finally contribute something here. He's even got a couple of funny-looking green ones, and-- Oh my... those aren't cand- LOOK OUT! QUILEN AT YOUR FIVE O'CLOCK! EVASIVE MANEUVERS!"
Penny darted to the opposite side of the entrance, still clinging to the ceiling, hoping to be out of the quilen's reach, yet ready to hit it herself with the cryo-cannon when Celeste was ready with her fire.
"In position!"
The quilen swiped at the PEBBLE, missing the agile machine, piloted by the very best. The ARMUTT wasn't meant to be agile, however, and Celeste never really piloted the machine to make it move gracefully. It had been designed as a tool, after all. Sharp claws sank into thick armor and the quilen bit down onto the right tool arm. Celeste tried to move the ARMUTT away, even swinging the tool arm to get rid of her assailant, connecting with a squishy thud. The beast gave a few quick shakes of it head. The screech of tearing metal was heard and the tool arm was torn off!
"Penny, the ARMUTT isn't going to last like this," Celeste said quickly over the comms, not taking the time to open a channel to only Penny. "The integrity of my armor is already down to half, and I lost the tool arm. Just hit it! Freeze it as much as you can! I'm going to have to blink out of the ARMUTT while it's distracted. We won't have another chance at this so make it count!"
"Wait, WHAT!?" I said suddenly in alarm, not having expected this sudden change in the chatter over the comms. "CELESTE! Penny, PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE stop that thing!"
"Right, chief, and first lady! Stand clear!"
Penny maneuvered the legs of the PEBBLE to flip over right-side-up as she released the nimble vehicle from the ceiling, timing it to land right on the quilen's back! This proved to be quite distracting from Celeste, allowing a Blink out and an escape to the shadows. After several bonks to the noggin (which, aside from sending a few tiny bits of clay to the floor, the quilen simply healed up), Penny leaped the PEBBLE backward, activating the cryo-cannon in mid-air!
FWWWOOOOOOOOOOSH!
The quilen was frozen in ice! For the time being, anyway...
Celeste was out of the ARMUTT as soon as Penny jumped her machine on their target, seeing from the porthole in the dome what Penny had done. She briefly thought that she could use a proper camera and display like Penny had instead of this tiny window in the dome of her machine...
Fire, bright and strong, suddenly burst into existence where Celeste had escaped to. Even Penny in her PEBBLE felt the ambient temperature quickly rise. Rarely had Celeste summoned so much fire, so fast. Her form was aglow with roiling flames and suddenly she directed all of it at their attacker. A veritable column of fire aimed straight at the quilen! The beast howled and raged. For a moment it seemed to shrug off the attack, moving off of the ARMUTT and turning to face Celeste, crouching to pounce. It stopped suddenly as its front seemed to start to melt while the back end didn't seem to move. The quilen gave a sort of surprised, "Urk?" Then suddenly it exploded, sending sharp shards of frozen clay in one direction and hot lumps of melting clay in the other! Celeste Blinked away from the blast, conjuring a shield of fire in front of the PEBBLE to protect it from the debris.
A demented chortle sounded over the comms for all to hear, including me, and I knew from the sound of Penny's glee that Celeste was safe after all. With a hand over my racing heart, taking several deep breaths to get my breathing back under control, I sat down and waited for the pair to emerge.
Inside the ruins, Penny's mechanical limbs were flailing everywhere as she cackled maniacally.
"IT WORKED!" she squeaked loudly. "And we only had to freeze and burn ONCE!"
She set about racing all over the room, stamping bits of quilen flat, smashing them to pieces, scattering it far and wide so that it had no hope of reforming and regenerating (she hoped).
"Hey, Chief," she squeaked next. "If the eyes are what activated it, I propose we remove them from the premises and deposit them in two separate oceans. And I suppose we'll need to update the team, especially Mister Breakstone – I suspect his frantic hysteria will subside when we do."
Celeste reached down and picked up one of the eyes that had been landed near her.
"I think we'll let the Pandarens decide what to do with those eyes,” she mused. “Though I'd rather get rid of them like you suggested. This is what a lot of their ancestors died for. Dangerous though, to keep around. Ah, here's the other one!"
She found the other embedded into a frescoe on the wall near the ARMUTT.
"Darn that thing really did a number on my machine. I think I'll have to completely rebuild the tool arm, and most of the plating on the side is just shredded. Good job with the PEBBLE Penny; it gave me the window I needed... Oh!"
She keyed the comms on her wrist. "Nat, we're okay. The quilen is gone. It exploded. There's some damage to the room. Lost the MUTT's tool arm. Both Penny and I are fine, though. Thankfully our plan worked exactly as expected, or it would've been a short fight. We'll be returning to base camp shortly."
"Oh, thank GOODNESS!" I replied over the comms. "I'm SO glad you guys are alright! The others are all really relieved too! I'll help you out with the MUTT as much as I can! See you in a few!"
Penny opened the dome on the PEBBLE. Her hair was lank and damp, and she was fanning herself with a mechanical hand.
"Good form, Celeste!" Penny said, dropping the bit of radio-type communication now that they were face-to-face. "You increased the ambient temperature in here by an order of magnitude, to be certain! Do you think you can walk out in the MUTT? Can the usable arm still function well enough to carry the tool-arm out?"
Celeste shook her head and shrugged. "The cannon arm for the ARMUTT configuration doesn't have any other functions. Too much space needed for the reload mechanism and the recoil springs. I'll just leave it here for now. I can walk out the MUTT, though. Get yourself somewhere cooler; I can't siphon off the heat here without having somewhere to redirect it. The room should get colder fairly quickly. C'mon, we're done. Maybe now we can finally get this digsite done properly..."
Celeste blinked into the MUTT's cockpit and turned the machine towards the exit. The gears screeched, but the machine managed to move well enough.
"Right," Penny said, with a forlorn look at the tool-arm being left behind. To someone whose whole way of life revolved around mechanized tech, leaving such an amazing device behind was a bit like leaving a comrade behind. But, without any other quilen in the ruins, she was sure it would be fine where it was until Celeste was prepared to retrieve it. In the meantime, she was happy to get back to cooler temperatures.
She closed the dome once more, peering at the view screen and the rearview bits in her goggles, just in case. But for now, she wasn't walking on the walls or the ceiling. She was just setting a leisurely pace on the floor behind her friend as they made their way back to camp.
Celeste used the ARMUTT's jumpjets to get her machine up from the ruins and landed it close to the outdoor eating area. Popping the top, she Blinked out and immediately moved to hug me.
"How's things up here?” she asked. “Sorry we gave you a scare. That quilen was strong, but the MUTT took most of it though."
She smiled at Uncle Rugnar who came striding up. The dwarf clapped Celeste on the back, then whistled as he looked at the damage to the MUTT.
"Took a wallopin’, you did," he said, then gave a cheer as Penny approached in her own machine.
"Penny me girl, ye got both of those under yer belt. Quite the warrior ye are!" He said, slapping one of the PEBBLE's legs, oblivious to the fact Penny couldn't hear him from inside the armored sphere, though the message was repeated after she opened the dome.
I know I was visibly shaken, and I darted straight to Celeste for that hug!
"OHMIGOSH, that was so scary!” I blurted out. “When I heard you were leaving the armor and getting out into the room with that THING... I'm SO glad you're alright!"
My hug for Celeste lasted a while, even through Rugnar giving Celeste a clap on the back. Eventually, however, I let go of Celeste and knelt down to hug Penny as well.
"Penny, my dear friend," I said. "I'm so glad you're alright, and that you were there to help Celeste when the MUTT got ripped up! Thank you SO MUCH!"
Penny chuckled and blushed, stammering but not getting much out. The praise from Rugnar and I was overwhelming for her, as was the renewed looks of admiration from the Cogswitch twins.
"Cogs and sprockets..." was all she could manage in the moment.
Suyin and the Stoutgardens had a lunch of sandwiches and soothing tea prepared for everyone in a hurry. The lunch was a rather sober one, punctuated with yelps and panicked ramblings from Bulchor, who, according to Suyin, would soon regain his senses, once she got enough of her tea in him. Dordy, who had long ago picked up on the disdain Celeste and I have for ol’ Bulbous, usually avoided the dwarf, but he was now spending his time in between getting scraps of food from everyone with the grouchy old dwarf, licking his face, crawling into his lap, and generally trying to be a soothing presence. What an amazing, smart little guy, and what a great big heart he has!
After lunch, we all retired to the beach, where Celeste retold the tale at a beach bonfire fishing party (with plenty of fish for all for dinner later) that the whole of Anglers Wharf came to attend. The tale involved a quilen that used its clay form to chase Penny around on the ceiling, sticking to the ceiling itself with its clay paws as it did epic battle with the PEBBLE before finally coming down to get into a fist-(paw/tool-arm?) fight with the ARMUTT. I giggled as Celeste told of how she’d punched the clay quilen’s head clean off, only for the body to run over and jam its neck into the base of the head and return to the fray, ripping the ARMUTT up severely enough that Celeste had to jump out and Blink around the room a few times until Penny froze it. Then came the part about a firestorm so severe, it nearly melted the entire ruins before the quilen exploded with the force of a bomb that shook the tunnels. The Anglers gasped and oohed and aahed accordingly, even with Other Nat winking at some of Celeste’s more outrageous bits.
After Celeste’s thrilling tale was complete, the party began to simmer down into more of a feast. I ended up heading to bed as the stars came out, as the minication was just about over and I had to get to sleep for lame early work morning.
This week, it’s all been work on the MUTT. We came up with a simple plan to get the very heavy tool-arm retrieved from the ruins: Penny took the PEBBLE into the ruins for the tool-arm, dragging the steel cables behind her. The Cogswitch twins rode on either side, sitting on the edge of the cockpit with their feet dangling inside, able to do so with the PEBBLE’s dome down. They were there to help guide the steel cables around corners and un-snag them from obstacles as Penny dragged them in with the suction cups of the front legs on either side, or so they said. Really, they wanted a ride in the cool machine and to watch the object of their infatuation hard at work, I bet!
At any rate, they got the steel cables in and attached them to the tool-arm, and I went with the rest of the engineers (sans Celeste, who was serving the plan in a different capacity) to assist with guiding the cables around corners after Celeste attached the other ends to Nosebleed. Suyin accompanied Celeste, keeping an eye on the bandaging on Nosebleed’s flank and making sure Nosebleed didn’t open the wounds from the quilen again. He ended up being just fine, thankfully, and didn’t seem to mind the work through the injury or feel any pain at all, thanks to Suyin’s pain-killing healing salve. He’s so big and strong and tough!
We eventually got the tool-arm out and attached to the winch of the Flying Nosebleed at camp, which Uncle Rugnar used to carry the arm back to Celeste’s workshop after winching the tool-arm into the cargo hold underneath.
After that, as I said, the week’s been us working on the MUTT. Rugnar’s been spending a lot of time reforging the armor, flattening it back out and sealing up the rends in the plating. Celeste’s been working on the tool-arm on the floor in one corner of the room in between helping with the damaged wiring. Penny replaced a lot of gears and sprockets that had been damaged or broken, with help from the twins. Shalyra has been the main one repairing the wiring as well as working on installing a viewscreen like Penny’s in the PEBBLE on the dome attachment that comes with the ARMUTT upgrade. I’ve been helping out everyone where I can, using what engineering knowledge I have to help everyone out and trying to learn more as much as I could. We’ve made some great headway!
Today, everyone’s still on the same tasks, though we’re nearing completion. I think we might be okay with a few more days’ work.
Not much else has happened. Stormwind friends are still too busy for Deathrolls or helping me out with that recurring dream. I have been considering soloing the latter after all, but we’ll see what happens.
For now, though, we have ruins with no methane and no crazed quilen on the loose, so it’s ripe for exploration and cataloguing! With nothing but peace ahead of us, I expect we’ll be free to run wild in there, exploring to our heart’s content! I can’t wait to see what other kinda cool stuff we find in there! YAY!
Nat heaved a happy, contented sigh at that, sipping at her coffee in one hand as she poked her mechanical pen back into her mechanical inkwell with the other. Snapping her diary shut, she hurried upstairs with it (Dordy hot on her heels, always eager to run with anyone else moving around the house quickly) and the inkwell, depositing them in their respective homes in her office. Hurrying again, she made her way back downstairs after stopping in the kitchen for a snack for Dordy. Dordy followed after her, happily wagging his tail, his prize in his mouth.
Work continued throughout the morning and late into the afternoon, everyone still on their respective tasks. Celeste ordered lunch from Angler’s Wharf, and her flying drone retrieved fish, shellfish, goat steaks, salad, Jade Forest anaconda (the Cogswitch twins were feeling adventurous), and a few types of ales, as well as a note from Other Nat wishing everyone a happy lunch.
As the afternoon wore on, the team ended up feeling like a rest for the day was needed. Invitations were sent out to Bulchor and Durnen at the digsite (and predictably declined) for a dinner at Halfhill, where the group teamed up on camp tasks clearing up the garden of weeds, vines, and vermin, and those who hadn’t seen Celeste’s engineering here took the time to marvel at it appreciatively. After a dinner of items even more assorted than their lunch (the twins tried mushan steaks and spicy chicken hotwings this time), the group retired for the evening. Penny remained at the farmhouse, Celeste, Nat, and Rugnar returned to the House-On-The-Spire (Rugnar still using the guest room), the pandarens returned to their respective homes, and the Cogswitch twins elected to take a room at the Halfhill inn rather than return to camp.
Nat went to bed later that evening feeling tired from the day’s work, but with a smile on her face. Now that the methane and especially the quilen were out of the way, she couldn’t wait to see how the exploration of the ruins would go, and what they might find in there next!
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Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Aug 3, 2023 11:33:26 GMT
August the Third The mists of Pandaria rolled through the jungle, keeping cool the jungle floor where the base camp for the digsite was built during the warmest part of the year. The earthy smell of dirt, life, and decay was prevalent, though the salt sea not too far away could also be detected on the air. The jungle was alive with the sound of birds and insects, punctuated here and there by the odd breath of wind in the trees or the yowling of a jungle cat. The jungle floor was a bit darker than usual, what with the mists blocking the sun, and that called for a lamp to be lit in one of the tents.
Nat sat at the workbench in her tent at the digsite where all her maps and lists of catalogued items were organized, feeling rather dumbfounded, even all these days later. It had been a week of revelation, and now, things rested on tenterhooks. Outside the tent, Celeste was leading the digsite team, under the watchful eyes of some very important people. Nat knew she was feeling the pressure as well, even though both of them felt pretty reassured that these important people, unlike “Bulbous” Bulchor Breakstone, liked what they saw here.
Nat’s assignment, for now, was to catalogue any incoming artifact discoveries or maps, but, as there were none at the moment, her diary was out on the desk while she waited. She’d already gotten a new tunnel mapped on parchment from a holographic map that had arrived, and a few new frescoes and ancient digging tools had been written in as well today. With nothing else having come in for a bit, she took out her mechanical inkwell, poked free her mechanical pen, and applied tip to blank page.
Dear diary,
Goodness gracious, it’s been a breathless week! One big bombshell was dropped early in the week, and I’ve been all of a dither since!
Celeste told me Sunday night that, during my last day of work, Golbert asked a moment alone with her. He didn't say much; he just asked for a portal to Ironforge and another the next day at noon to return. Celeste asked him if everything was alright, to which he responded that things were "rock solid". Of course she obliged and opened the portal for him. She’s so nice like that!
Work continued restoring the campsite and, on Monday when I was free to rejoin the group, everything was just about done. Celeste and Shalyra busied themselves with their new drone, mapping out the tunnels again to make new maps for me and to get a proper mapping of the jade mine. The twins were finishing putting up the lights in the mine, with the help of Penny and her wall-walking PEBBLE to put up some lights in harder-to-reach areas. The mines, being more cavernous than the ruins, had to be lit up with several layers of lights, each a dozen feet apart in height. Rugnar was helping the Stoutgardens in the kitchen (explaining how to make proper biscuits for breakfast), while Suyin was making an inventory of the camp's stocks.
I rejoined the group feeling relaxed for the first time in several weeks. There was no danger and no Bulbous plotting to worry about. Though I was slightly concerned about Golbert's mysterious behavior, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt for now and trust that all was well with the team.
I looked around my tent when I arrived, pleased and excited to see how the holographic maps were coming along from all the drone's activities.
"Wow, the camp looks great!" I said to the team when I arrived. "Great job guys! What's next?"
Celeste was about to reply when she remembered that it was time to open the portal for Golbert.
“Hold that thought!” she said to me, then concentrated on opening the portal. “I promised Golbert I’d give him a portal to help him return here.”
Golbert however, didn’t return alone. He was accompanied by five other people! What the heck!? Three dwarves, a gnome, and an elderly human! Celeste and I both recognized the newcomers… they’re members of the Explorer’s League’s ruling council! OHMIGOSH!
“Thank ye for the shortcut, miss McCullough,” Golbert said in his typical formal way. He gestured to the others he brought along.
“I’m afraid I have been a bit dishonest with you from the beginning. I am actually a member of the League’s council. Ever since your report on the ruins in Winterspring some years ago, which posited that the architecture there was dwarven in nature and not elven, I’ve kept an eye on your career. I was the one that secured your contract for the expedition in the Swamp of Sorrows and the next one in the desert. You and your talented wife have always shown professionalism and innovative ways of achieving your goals. When you presented your findings with this new site, I was the one who pushed for giving you control of not only the digsite, but of recruiting the team that best suited you.”
Golbert then produced the list he had been working on.
“I have compiled a list of the multitude of revolutionary ideas and innovative successes you and your team have managed to create so far. The rest of my esteemed colleagues have been invited to see these innovations for themselves.”
Golbert’s expression then grew more somber.
“Bulchor Breakstone comes from an influential family who donates generously to the Explorer’s League. You may have bypassed his influence by financing this dig yourself, but other projects continue to rely on donors like the Breakstones. I have taken the liberty of listing the different occasions in which Bulchor effectively tried to sabotage you and your team for his own gains. The council is siding with you on this, however. You are free to continue your work, as Bulchor has been expelled from the League. Now, with your permission, I will take my colleagues on a tour of the ruins.”
Celeste, clearly surprised at the revelations Golbert had provided simply nodded then said: “Right, uhm, sure, go ahead…”
I had boggled at the Who's Who list of Explorer's League officials coming through the portal, and my eyes only got wider at Golbert's big reveal. They practically bugged out of my head when Golbert announced Bulbous' expulsion! OHMIGOSH!
"OhmigoshgoodnessgraciousgeezeLouis, Celeste!" I blurted out after the line of bigwigs had headed toward the ruins. "And to think he served so humbly as a mere assistant to me for so long, and nary a complaint or a harrumph! Good golly!
"And they ousted Bulbous, oh my goodness! And now they're looking around the ruins themselves!? Goodness gracious, I hope they don't think we've ruined the ancient mogu feel by wiring in modern lighting! Or will they think it an innovative, GOOD idea, instead? Geez la Pete, I don't even know what to do with myself right now!"
"It's a good thing, lass, you can be sure o' that," Uncle Rugnar said as he walked up to the two women. His satisfied grin seemed to say that he was onto this secret more than he let on.
"Uncle Rugnar, you knew about this?" Celeste asked, surprised but not angry.
"Who do you think first told Golbert there to be on the lookout for a young couple o' aspiring Explorers? Jus' gave 'im a copy o' your report from that dig in Winterspring and then let things work 'emselves out. I'm right proud o' the both o' ye, of course but I knew ye'd shine even without me recommendation." Rugnar replied, giving Celeste a pat on the shoulder. "'Course the League wanted assurances that this wasn't jus' me pushing family through. Might-o been why that cranky old Breakstone started bein' jealous and connivin'. I had me own fights with that one, years ago. Didn't expect him to be assigned here though, sorry 'bout that."
"Golbert wants ye both to succeed. Put a lot at stake his own self in this dig. This is just him, showing how amazing the two o' ye can be when ye got a good team around ye."
I could only listen to Rugnar, at a loss for words, stunned. I hadn't expected this one at all! Eventually, however, I found my voice.
"Gosh," I said. "I'm SO relieved, and so THANKFUL, that you were even more in our corner, and even more connected, than I thought, Uncle Rugnar! You're the GREATEST!"
I bounced on the heels of my feet a little with glee, still getting over the shock as I turned my eyes toward where the senior League officials had disappeared into the ruins.
"Gosh, I hope they like it..."
Since then, they’ve been back a couple of times. They’re in the ruins right now, talking quietly amongst themselves, looking around and quietly pointing things out and stuff. I don’t know what it all means. I don’t know if putting up modern lighting systems in ancient ruins is like, disturbing or desecrating the ruins, or if it’s a good thing, like lighting up a museum. Hopefully the latter! Also I hope they think that this archaeological find is truly worth it. We’ve put MONTHS of time and effort and energy into it, not to mention facing everything from dangerous gas to betrayal to TWO rampaging monsters!
I’m hoping Celeste gets word soon from them that they like it and want the dig to continue, and that they reward her for all her long, hard efforts within the Explorer’s League! Maybe we’ll find out today, or in the coming week!
Nothing else is really going on. Stormwind friends are still really busy, so, outside of brief hangouts, nothing is really happening, although the Trial of Style is back in Stormwind, and my bestie Nah and my good buddy Grimmie went to go do that! It’s a fashion contest! They pick a theme, like the Gothic Gala, or Blue Skies, or Mismatch Mayhem, or various seasonal themes, and you have two minutes to pick from your wardrobe an outfit to match before you run out of time and gotta just show what you got. They put six people in there, and two go up on the stage at a time for the four others to vote which outfit they like better. So far, Nah, Grim, and I have done pretty well! We’ve placed in the top three most times, and gotten some first place wins, which means you get a hologram of your winning outfit outside! I’ve gotten six wins so far, which has gotten me some MORE wardrobe pieces that I really love! I’m hoping to go back and get the rest of the pieces they have to choose from with a few more wins! In the meantime, gosh, we had SO much FUN!
The recurring dream is still not dealt with. I’m hoping to get everyone together to go and make that trip soon, too!
But most of all, the elephant in the room is the Explorer’s League bigwigs. Oh my gosh, I hope they’re going to give Celeste a pat on the back! Uncle Rugnar seems pretty sure of it. I hope he’s right! I can’t wait to find out! YAY!
Nat poked her pen back into her inkwell, snapping her diary shut and returning both to her pack. There was another artifact being brought out for cataloguing by Penny and the Cogswitch twins, with the latter riding on the edge of the PEBBLE to hold what appeared to be, at a distance, a pair of barbells from a weightlifting room. As they got free of the shadows of the ruins, Nat noticed it was actually a couple of axles with wheels on either end of them. Apparently, there had been carts of some sort in use during ancient times when the ruins were active, only the wood had long since rotted away, and metals used in the cart were all that remained. Nat moved quickly into her tent to get her pen and the catalogue of discovered items, feeling quite nervous as she wrote – the League officials had followed the trio of gnomes out to watch.
Whatever the officials were thinking was well masked behind their stoic expressions. Nat did her best to hold her composure. What they’d say about this operation, only time would tell…
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